LEXINGTON – Two days after an unfortunate 4-3 loss at home to Lexington to open the 5A Division 1 upper state series, the Blythewood baseball team (24-7) saw its season come to an unfitting end at Lexington (21-9-1) in a lopsided 15-3 defeat in six innings to the Wildcats in the best-of-3 series.
“They had a tremendous year,” Bengals head coach Travis Poole said about his team. “I would be willing to say a lot of people didn’t think that we would be where we were at this time of year, but they worked hard all season, all off-season to be here. They had a tremendous season, and I appreciate every one of them.”
Brandon Cromer, who went 5-for-5 in the two games with two doubles, three home runs, and drove in eight runs, led Lexington in game two with a 3-for-3 performance with two round-trippers, a double and six RBI.
Lexington pitcher Grant Kissner followed up on Reidar Carlson’s complete-game effort May 20 with one of his own, albeit six innings. Kissner gave up six hits, three runs, all earned, no walks and struck out five.
Amare Counts went 3-for-3 with two solo home runs. Macon Leppert hit a double.
“I think he can get a lot better,” Poole said. “I think every player on any program has opportunities to grow in different ways. We’ll have our individual meetings and we’ll talk about a lot of that during the offseason.”
Blythewood opened the scoring in the top of the first inning with one out and Macon Leppert on base with a double. Leppert’s courtesy runner moved to third on Alex Myers’ sacrifice bunt and scored on Jackson Bottar’s ground out.
Amare Counts singled and moved to second when Sergio Melendez reached base on an error. Counts was tagged out trying for third base on the play and ended the inning.
Lexington took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the first. Cromer’s one-out double scored Toby Sobieralski, and later with Hill at first and Cromer at second, Kissner’s 2-out single scored Cromer. Hill end the inning when he was tagged out trying for third.
Counts evened the score in the top of the fourth inning with a leadoff solo home run over the leftfield fence. Unfortunately for the Bengals Melendez grounded out, Johnny Collins struck out, and Chance Johnson popped out to end the inning.
Cromer’s first home run of the day came in the bottom of the fourth with two out and Spivey on base with a single. His shot over the centerfield fence gave Lexington a 4-2 lead.
“They were very, very well-prepared offensively,” Poole said. “They didn’t make mistakes, they didn’t give us free bases. They had some key hits. That two-out home run probably drove the nail in the coffin early. It’s just something that’s hard to overcome.”
That set up the Wildcats’ 7-run fifth inning that put the game out of reach at 11-2.
Counts’ second home run came with one out the top of the sixth inning, but the Bengals could cut no more from the lead. Melendez popped out and Collins flied out to retire the side.
Cromer’s second dinger came as a walk-off 3-run homer in the bottom of the Wildcats’ 4-run sixth inning. That smash gave Lexington the 10-plus margin that ended the game and the series instantly.
Lexington (21-9-1) moved on to play James Island (28-3) in the best-of-three 5A Division 1 state championship series that began Tuesday. The Trojans beat Stratford 6-3 May 20 and 13-7 May 22 to claim the lower state championship.
Collins, Leppert, Counts, Weisinger earn 5A Division 1 All-State honors
Collins was named the Class 5A Division I State Pitcher of the Year for his efforts in the 2025 season. He, Leppert and Count were named 5AD1 All-State in baseball.
In softball, Blythewood’s Rhames Weisinger was named to the 5A All-State team.
Game 1, May 20
Lexington – 2-1-1-0-0-0-0 – 4, 6, 3
Blythewood – 2-0-0-0-1-0-0 – 3, 6, 2
WP: Reidar Carlson, 7 IP, 6H 3R, 1ER, 2BB, 2K.
L – Brandon Cromer 2-2, 2B, HR, 2 RBI. Toby Sobieralski 2-4, 2B. Graham Coleman 2-3, HR. B – Jackson Bottar 3-3.
Game 2, May 22
Blythewood – 1-0-0-1-0-1 – 3, 6, 3
Lexington – 2-0-0-2-7-4 – 15, 14, 1
WP: Grant Kissner, 6 IP, 6H 3R, 3ER, 5K.
L – Brandon Cromer 3-3, 2B, HR(2), 6 RBI. Christian Spivey 3-5, 2 RBI. Graham Coleman 2-4, 2B. Grant Kissner 2 RBI. B – Amare Counts 3-3, HR(2) 2 RBI. Macon Leppert 2B.
