Bottom Line: Columbia County's school athletes display winning attitudes
The Lakeside Girls Soccer Team and their Head Coach Donny Rogers should be applauded for an incredible season. The Panthers came up short this weekend in the State Title Game, falling to an outstanding Marist team 3-2. The team finished 16-5-2 including two straight trips to the State AAAA Final Four.
All four Columbia County public schools earned berths into the State Baseball Playoffs. Last Friday, three of the four moved on to the second round with impressive two-game sweeps. Those three will each play in round two today.
Greenbrier polished off Troup County 6-2 and 8-1. The Pack will now face Alexander. Alexander advanced to round two with a pair of victories over Thomas County Central 5-3 and 13-4.
Evans posted two shutout wins over Dacula 1-0 and 10-0. The Knights hope to have more strong pitching in round two versus tradition-rich Lassiter. Lassiter knocked off Walton 7-5 and 2-1.
Harlem squeaked past Savannah Christian 2-1 and 6-5. The Bulldogs used some timely hitting to advance to the second round. Next up is Dublin who outscored Westover 26-6 in their first round sweep.
Lakeside looked like a safe bet to move on as well. After all, the Panthers led 6-0 early in Game 1 against Hardaway. However, the Hawks weren't done. They rallied to score seven runs and give Lakeside a tough-luck loss. The Panthers were unable to recover and lost Game 2 with a score of 5-1. Lakeside posted a 20 win season, but ended the year with four straight loses.
Big Honor for Lakeside Standout
The 28th Annual Billy Prince Award Banquet was held last week. The event is put on by the Augusta West Rotary Club and honors the top male and female student athletes from 19 area schools from Columbia County, Richmond County, and North Augusta. In addition to representing their school, the athletes were also vying for five special awards.
Lakeside Senior Sam Jasinski captured one of those honors. Jasinski was recognized as the CSRA's Top Male Student Athlete. Despite the stiff competition, the pick was an easy one. His resume is quite impressive. He was a four-year varsity letterman in wrestling and football, earning All-County honors at linebacker this season.
Even more impressive is Jasinski's work in the classroom. He finished with a 4.0 grade point average and boasts a 1440 on his SAT. He will attend MIT this fall and major in Aeronautical Engineering.
While at MIT, he plans to wrestle and play football. This impressive young man has a good future ahead of him.
Other winners are listed below:
Augusta Christian - Katie Holmes and Andrew Fisher
Augusta Prep - Laura Bigham and Taylor Bird
Evans - Kim Millward and Drew Hess
Greenbrier - Kaycee Quarles and Steve Young
Harlem - Sharday Taylor and Tim Camp
Lakeside - Jamie Lake and Sam Jasinski