By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
It worked out just right for the Burlington Christian Academy baseball team – all the way to a comfortable final game to seal a North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association state championship.
“I don’t think I expected anything less,” senior first baseman Mark Primm said among celebrating with teammates and families at McCrary Park in Asheboro. “It’s how I imagined it.”
The Royals swept the Class 2-A best-of-3 series for the program’s first state championship, winning 12-1 in Saturday’s Game 2 following a more tense 2-1, eight-inning escape Friday night against Freedom Christian Academy.
Top-seeded BCA (24-1) dominated many of its games, including the last one.
“We give God all the glory,” BCA coach Justin Brown said. “That’s the way we wanted it to play out. We stayed pretty humble all year. We kept saying the job’s not done, and now it’s done.”
Cohen Payne had huge impacts in both games in the championship series. After providing the winning hit in Game 1, the junior left-hander struck out 11 batters in five innings of the clinching game.
“A heckuva two days,” Payne said. “Couldn’t ask for a better year.”
For utility player Gib Wirt and pitcher/infielder Cooper Kelly, it marked their third NCISAA state titles after winning in 2022 and 2023 with The Burlington School.
“It doesn’t feel much different,” Kelly said. “It feels good every time.”
Wirt said: “We had some guys who knew how to play in the postseason. We had some young guys who were freshmen who wanted to come play. We all were united under the same goal. We’re all united in faith and we wanted to come and win together.”
BCA, which was the visiting team in Game 2, used back-to-back run-scoring singles from Wirt and Anthony Valdez along with Primm’s two-run single in a four-run first inning.
“Got the nerves out with four early runs,” Brown said.
Payne struck out three of four batters in the first inning.
“It felt smooth, calm after (Friday) night’s game,” Payne said. “Everything felt right.”
J.D. Mace ripped a run-scoring single as the Royals began the process of tacking on runs, scoring in all except for the fifth inning.
The Patriots loaded the bases with one out in the second. Andrew Corney drew a two-out walk before a strikeout limited the damage.
Freedom Christian Academy (22-7), a Fayetteville school, jammed the bases again in the third, this time with no outs. It came up empty.
The Royals didn’t waste their next chance, with Kelly doubling and Davis Phillips singling him home in the fourth. Later, Payne and Phillips, a TBS transfer who was part of his second title team, added run-scoring singles.
Wirt, who pitched the final two innings, finished with three runs batted in and Lofton Gonzalez and Kelly each checked in three hits for BCA, which topped Freedom Christian twice during the regular season. The Royals won their last 16 games.
“It has been our goal since Day 1 and we achieved it,” Brown said.
In Game 1, Kelly pitched a complete game with 11 strikeouts and scored the winning run.
Kelly walked to lead off the eighth and ended up on third base with one out. Following a pair of intentional walks, Payne blooped a single to left field for the winning run.
BCA played on three consecutive days because of a twice-postponed semifinal, which was moved to Truist Point in High Point on Thursday. The Royals scored the final 10 runs to top Westchester Country Day School 11-1 in six innings, with Will Grubb throwing a four-hitter with seven strikeouts. Kelly and Phillips both drove in two runs and Wirt had two hits and scored three runs.
