South Caldwell and Southern Lee meet for 6A baseball title in Burlington

Burlington’s baseball stadium became the center of North Carolina high school sports Friday night, as South Caldwell and Southern Lee met for the 6A state championship in a best-of-three series that put Alamance County in front of fans from both ends of the state.

Game 1 was set for 8 p.m. Friday at Burlington Athletic Stadium, with Game 2 on Saturday at 2 p.m. and a decisive Game 3 at 8 p.m. if needed. Gates opened one hour before the first contest each day, and the stadium was one of the NCHSAA’s championship sites during the May 27-30 finals, which also included 2A, 5A and 7A baseball. The association kept Burlington in the finals rotation even as it expanded baseball from four classifications to eight, doubling the number of teams and dates involved.

For Burlington, that meant more than a title series. It brought two large school communities into town for a weekend built around packed stands, postgame traffic and the kind of tournament atmosphere that turns a local ballpark into a regional destination. South Caldwell’s West regional final alone drew about 2,000 fans, a sign of the turnout the championship could produce.

South Caldwell reached Burlington by beating Alexander Central 5-3 in the 6A West regional final. Southern Lee’s path was even more dramatic. The Cavaliers were down to their final innings at 27-3 before Max Andrew Sercy tripled home two runs to tie Terry Sanford, then Gavin Shaffer singled through the right side to score Sercy and finish a 5-4 comeback win in the seventh inning. Southern Lee then won its East regional series over Southern Alamance, extending the deepest playoff run in school history.

The stakes were historic for the Cavaliers, too. A state title would be the first sanctioned team sports championship in Southern Lee history.

South Caldwell’s trip added another layer of local significance. The Spartans’ baseball run came during a historic week for the school, which also sent its softball team to the state championship series. The baseball and softball teams punched their tickets about 25 minutes apart and roughly a third of a mile apart on the South Caldwell campus and nearby complex, forcing families to move quickly between celebrations. The Spartans won the 2025 4A softball title and were chasing the program’s first 6A crown, while the baseball team was fighting for the school’s own title shot in Burlington.