When Lockhart Elite Baseball coaches John Parks and Ronnie “Bop” Latham took their All-Star baseball team to compete in a USSSA tournament this past weekend, they didn’t know what to expect. This was a new experience not only for the coaches, but for the players as well, so when they finished the tournament in second place, it felt like first.

“We just wanted them to play hard,” said Parks. “We knew it would be a good experience for them. They have worked hard over the past few weeks that we’ve been together so we knew they could do well, but they exceeded our expectations.”

Lockhart opened the tournament with a 15-4 win over the Cliffside Copperheads and followed that up with a 3-2 victory over the Upstate Mavericks. Game three saw Lockhart shutout the Talon Baseball Blue 8-0 to set up the championship game where the SC Cyclones, an 11U Majors team, took a 9-1 win.

“They made us proud and proved that they’re All-Stars,” said Latham. “We have a good group of young ball players in this area and hopefully they’ll all stick with it and continue to compete.”

The All-Star team and coaches would like to thank the Lockhart Elite Board for its dedication and hard work, stating that without the board this would not have been possible.