Randleman baseball dominates again, repeats as NCHSAA state champions

BURLINGTON — Through two innings, it looked like Randleman baseball’s domination from Friday’s Game 1 of the NCHSAA Class 2A state championship series wouldn’t carry over into Saturday.

Heading into the top of the third, the Tigers trailed by three runs and were struggling to get runners on base — much less across the plate.

“I just told them, ‘Boys, we’re Randleman baseball, ”' catcher Brooks Brannon said. “We know what we have to do, we just have to do it.”

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Then, Brannon came up to bat. The senior knocked a two-RBI triple into deep center, and Randleman never looked back. By the end of the inning, the Tigers had scored five runs.

There would be no need for a rubber match. At the end of seven innings, it had been long over. Randleman 12, Whiteville 5.

For the second straight year, the Tigers were state champions.

“It feels great,” senior Braylen Hayes said. “It feels like I’ve been here before. But it’s even better going out like this.”

As soon as the Tigers recorded the final out, they rushed the mound and embraced. A few moments later — after the players collected their medals and championship plaque — Brannon was named the series MVP.

His two-RBI hit in the third ignited the team in the batters box. Behind the plate, he helped guide pitcher Ryan White through a rough start and through the late innings.

“As the game went on, (Brannon) was like, ‘Hey man, relax, stay calm,’” White said. “He’s a true leader.”

Despite dominating Friday's matchup and suffering just one loss on the season, Brannon said it was in the Tigers' nature to not get too far ahead of themselves.

“Everybody’s a faceless opponent,” Brannon said. “I think that’s what puts us apart from everyone else. It doesn’t matter who we play, we play everyone as hard as we can.”

Randleman has continued to establish itself as one of the elite programs in the state — having reached the championship series in each of the last three seasons.

“Randleman has a tradition of winning, and I think we just proved that,” Brannon said.

This article originally appeared on The Courier-Tribune: Randleman baseball dominates again, repeats as NCHSAA state champions