Oceanside Collegiate claims third consecutive baseball state title

Mt. Pleasant – Britt Reames inherited a baseball program at Oceanside Collegiate Academy that was a 2-time defending state champion, winning the AAA crown in 2022 and the AA title in 2023.

Expectations were high for the Landsharks entering this season, but they were tempered coming down the homestretch of the season. OCA owned just a 14-9 record and was in a battle for the Region 7-AA title with Bishop England.

After topping Atlantic Collegiate 9-1, Oceanside beat Bishop England 7-5 in a special game to determine the region champion and its No. 1 seed in the playoffs. From there, the Landsharks rolled through the state playoffs to win their third straight state title.

OCA beat Mid-Carolina 4-0 on Monday at Shipyard Park in Mt. Pleasant and traveled to Prosperity on Tuesday and won 6-3 to sweep the best-of-3 championship series.

“It's super rewarding just from where we started to how it ended,” said Reames, the former Major League Baseball pitcher who was a standout at The Citadel. “I’m proud of the dedication, the work ethic of our players, the amount of time we spent together in order to become the team we became.

“We had to figure some things out but we did,” said Reames, whose team won its final 10 games to finish with a 24-9 record. “When you get a hot baseball team, it’s hard to stop them. It was a challenge. It was right toward the beginning of the playoffs, that was kind of when everything started coming together.”

In the series opener, Oceanside rode the pitching of freshman right-hander Charlie Becker to the shutout victory. Becker allowed just two hits in six innings of work, striking out five and walking just one. Junior Jackson Lanning pitched a scoreless seventh.

“I think Charlie Becker is the freshman of year,” Reames said. “He’s a command artist, but he throws hard, already at 89 (miles per hour). He’s a big kid, 6(-foot)-2(-inches), 215 (pounds).”

Becker finished the year with an 8-1 win-loss record and a 1.49 earned run average in 56 1/3 innings pitched.

The game was scoreless until the bottom of the fourth. East Tennessee State commitment Andrew Palmer led off with a single before two walks loaded the bases with no outs. A bunt single by Caden Fragola made the score 1-0. A sacrifice fly from Charlie Johnson pushed the lead to 2-0.

OCA pushed the lead to 4-0 on a bloop 2-run single by Jake DeMartino in the sixth.

Blake Mills had two hits to lead Mid-Carolina, which was played in its first state championship series since 2007 and has not won a state title since 1991.

In the second game, the Landsharks immediately took the air out of the the Rebels playing at home. Palmer, the South Carolina Baseball Coaches Association’s AA Player of the Year, smacked a 3-run home run in the top of the first.

OCA never trailed in the game. Mid-Carolina cut the lead to 3-2 in the fourth, but Oceanside made it 4-2 in the top of the fifth. It was a 5-3 game when Landsharks leadoff hitter David Ketterman had an RBI single.

Ketterman, who was once a College of Charleston commitment who will now attend Florence-Darlington Technical College, and Scott Henry both had two hits to lead OCA.

Reames said Oceanside came into the season with only two players with any real varsity experience. Because of that, it took the Landsharks a while to settle on who fit where in the field and in the batting order.

         “We created competition at spots where we knew who the better player was,” Reames said. “We played a lot of guys early to create that good competition amongst your team. Once in place for good, we started rolling.

         “We became a much better defensive team as the season went along. We didn't swing the bats really well. They either didn't believe in what we were telling them or didn’t have any idea of what they trying to process. Once they saw how we could win games offensively playing small ball and seeing it work, they began to believe in it.”

         The most consistent batting order for OCA coming down the home stretch had Ketterman, the centerfielder, leading off with catcher Henry batting in the 2 hole. Palmer, an outfielder, batted third with junior first baseman Aidan Brusman batting cleanup. Fragola played third and pitched while batting fifth while Johnson, the everyday sophomore shortstop, batted sixth.

         The bottom third of the order had junior pitcher/leftfielder Ryan Freeh batting seventh, designated hitter DiMartino batting eighth and senior Jake Stefani playing second and batting ninth. Reames said Stefani didn’t settle in at second or in the 9 hole until late in the season and was a steady force both on offense and defense.

         Along with Becker and Lanning, Freeh and Fragola devoured most of the innings on the mound for the Landsharks.