The Southern Lee High School baseball team has already delivered the deepest playoff run in school history. Now the Cavaliers are headed to the NCHSAA 6A state championship series with a chance at immortality.

If they bring home a state title, it would mark the first sanctioned team sports championship for the school.

The NCHSAA 6A championship series will be played at Burlington Athletic Stadium. Game 1 is scheduled for 8 p.m. Friday, followed by Game 2 at 2 p.m. Saturday. If necessary, a deciding Game 3 will be played 8 p.m. Saturday. 

The Cavs finished atop the Carolina Pines 6A Conference standings this season with a 13-1 league record and 29-4 overall. Along the way, they scored 269 runs while allowing just 92, combining one of the classification’s most explosive offenses with a pitching staff that controlled games all spring.

It’s a dream season for a young team that has just four seniors on its roster. Many of the players contributing to this postseason push spent last season on the junior varsity team.

“They just went out there every day and not really looked at the big picture,” head coach Tommy Harrington said. “Just went day by day, game by game. They never let the pressure of what a high school season can do to you get to them. They just played loose, and I think that played to their advantage.”

Harrington said he believed the group had talent long before the season began. He had watched many of them grow through recreational leagues and travel baseball. Even so, he expected a season filled with growing pains, especially after they lost the first game of the season.

“I told people before the year started, ‘I think we’re going to have a pretty decent season, but I think our youth will show at times,’” Harrington said. “But this group’s been resilient. They have put on a show this year, really and truly.”

That resilience defined the Cavaliers’ postseason run.

Southern Lee carried an 18-game winning streak into the East Region finals before dropping Game 2 against Southern Alamance, 12-2. Rather than derail the team, Harrington believes the loss helped reset its focus.

“It kind of brought us back down to reality,” he said. “It let the boys know we’re not invincible. Once you hit the playoffs, it’s basically a one-game season. Everybody needs a slice of humble pie every now and then.”

The Cavaliers responded emphatically, winning Game 3 by a 13-3 margin to punch their ticket to the state championship series.

A seventh-inning moment they’ll never forget

Southern Lee’s playoff journey may ultimately be remembered for one unforgettable inning.

Facing perennial powerhouse Terry Sanford High School in the fourth round, the Cavaliers entered the bottom of the seventh trailing 4-2 and down to their final three outs.

Then everything changed.

A leadoff single sparked the rally. The next batter hit what appeared to be a routine double-play ball, but beat the throw to first to keep the inning alive. A walk loaded the bases before junior Max Andrew Sercy ripped a two-run triple down the right-field line to tie the game.

Terry Sanford intentionally walked the next two batters to reload the bases, bringing sophomore Gavin Shaffer to the plate with two outs.

Shaffer had struggled offensively in recent games, but Harrington said nobody had worked harder behind the scenes.

“He was coming to practice early and hitting, and he was staying late after practice to hit,” Harrington said. “It was his time.”

Shaffer delivered a walk-off single to score the winning run and send Southern Lee into the regional championship round with a dramatic 5-4 victory.

“We walk it off against one of the powerhouses of high school baseball around here,” Harrington said, “and send us to the regionals.”

Sercy finished the game 3-for-4 with two RBIs.

A young star leading the way

Sophomore shortstop and pitcher Ben Harrington has emerged as the centerpiece of a deep and talented roster.

Harrington is batting .436 with a .553 on-base percentage, while leading the team in hits (44), runs scored (43), stolen bases (18), and slugging percentage (.614). On the mound, he owns a 1.70 ERA.

His performance earned him Carolina Pines 6A Player of the Year honors. He’s the fourth of the Harrington brothers to play for the Cavs, following Thomas (now with the Pittsburgh Pirates), Blake, and Cooper (pitching for Liberty University).

His head coach is also his father.

“I’m obviously blessed to be his dad, but also to be his coach,” Tommy Harrington said. “Ben has grown up with three older brothers, and I think he’s taken something from all of them — the calmness, the competitiveness, the ability to pitch. He’s put it all together and turned himself into an excellent high school baseball player.”

Tommy Harrington was also named Carolina Pines 6A Coach of the Year, giving Southern Lee both the conference’s top player and top coach during its historic season.

Overcoming adversity

The Cavaliers’ run has not come without setbacks.

Sophomore pitcher Brody Brown posted a microscopic 0.38 ERA before suffering an injury midway through conference play. Brown continued contributing as the team’s designated hitter.

“He was really strong coming out to start the season,” Harrington said. “For us not to have him pitching, and not to have him as a catcher, that definitely hurt us.”

Even with the injury, Southern Lee’s depth continued to show.

Junior catcher Luke Waters leads the team with 33 RBIs and 12 doubles while batting .320 with a .996 fielding percentage. Sercy has added a .327 average, 42 runs scored, and 16 stolen bases.

On the mound, Southern Lee has leaned heavily on Ben Harrington and senior Christian Cox, who has gone 9-1 this season and struck out 61, while also receiving key innings from Mitchel Bryant, Bailey Berg, and Rylan Stephens.

One final step

Southern Lee now turns its attention to South Caldwell (23-6) in the state championship series. The sixth-seeded Trojans knocked off the top seed in the West, Alexander Central, to advance to the final.

Harrington said he does not know much about South Caldwell, aside from the fact that the area is known as “Madison Bumgarner country” in reference to the MLB star who played there, but said his team’s approach will not change.

“Baseball’s baseball,” he said. “You’ve got to play between the white lines. Take what they give you. Don’t overthink it. Play to the last out. Effort and attitude.”

For Southern Lee, the opportunity extends beyond wins and losses.

The school has celebrated individual state champions before in wrestling and track & field, as well as non-NCHSAA bowling titles. But no sanctioned team sport had ever reached a state final until this season.

“It’d be huge,” Harrington said. “When you say Lee County, baseball is sometimes what comes to mind. It would be huge for Southern Lee to get a piece of that pride and bring it back as a Southern Lee state championship.”