By CT McDonald
The spring sports season is not over yet. Some local teams are still in contention, and some will start competition this week.
Softball: Chapin advanced through the 5A Lower District 6 brackets undefeated and capped it off with a 5-4 win against Ashley Ridge last week to take the district title and advance to the lower state tournament.
The Eagles pulled out two one-run victories against the Swamp Foxes in order to advance. After the 10-0 shut-out against Stratford to start the playoffs, Chapin beat Ashley Ridge 4-3 in the second round and followed that with the district title win after the Swamp Foxes beat Carolina Forest to advance in the losers bracket.
Then the Eagles defeated St. James in Round One of the lower state tournament to advance to a second round game against Summerville, and they lost that one 2-0 to drop to the losers bracket against St. James again.
That game against the Sharks on Wednesday will have now determined which of the two will face Summerville for the Lower State Championship on Friday. That team — Chapin or St. James — will need to win two games against the Green Wave in order to advance to the state tournament.
Dutch Fork also advanced to its district title game. In 5A Upper State District 1, the Silver Foxes beat T.L. Hanna 7-2 in the losers bracket and advanced to the district championship game against Dorman needing to win two games to advance to the upper state tournament.
But the Cavaliers, needing only one victory, won it 4-2 to end the Silver Foxes’ season.
Golf: The boys golf state tournaments were held early this week, with Chapin’s Harrison James, Chase Cline, Bryson Rockwell, Eason Donaldson and Wyatt Hightower starting 5A competition Monday at The Carolina Country Club in Spartanburg.
Track and Field: The track and field state finals competition is set for this weekend, with 5A teams competing at Spring Valley High School and 4A teams competing at Lower Richland High School.
And that will leave only the baseball and softball state tournaments to conclude the 2022-2023 sports season playoffs.
