BAMBERG -- Throughout this season, Bamberg-Ehrhardt has leaned on Don Sandifer for consistency and production both at the plate and on the mound.

As Sandifer tried to close out Friday's Lower State title game against Johnsonville, the pitcher leaned on teammate and catcher Brandon Bamberg, who provided timely encouragement.

"Settle down and then we got it," Bamberg told Sandifer with two outs, the tying run on second base and the Red Raiders holding a 5-4 lead. "Sometimes, he lets his nerves get worked up. All he needs to do is breathe and he's on it."

With B-E fans on the edge of their seats at David Horton Field, Sandifer got Matt Gaster to swing at a third strike. Since Bamberg did not cleanly catch the ball, he calmly retrieved it and made the throw to first to end the game and send the Red Raider players into a celebration.

In earning a third trip in four seasons to the Class A finals, B-E was led offensively by Chazz Moore. The designated hitter lived up to his title by going 3-3 and driving in four runs.

"Chazz really came through," B-E head coach David Horton said. "He's been struggling at the plate lately, but the last couple of games, he's really come through and tonight, he knocked in a lot of runs. That was a heck of a game he played offensively."

B-E needed every bit of Moore's run production. Despite nine hits, the Red Raiders left 10 runners on base and often took themselves out of potential big innings with miscues on the basepaths.

"The only thing I'm disappointed in was the way we ran the bases," Horton said. "We took ourselves out of a couple of innings with some base-running mistakes. Those are young kids and they're going to make those mistakes, I guess. We just need to get that ironed out by next week. They won't do it again."

Fortunately for B-E, Sandifer managed to keep the Flashes at bay through the first five innings, allowing just an RBI single by Jared Scott in the top of the third.

B-E took a 2-0 advantage in the bottom of the second after a two-run single by Moore. In the bottom of the third, RBIs by Zack Godley and Moore extended the Red Raiders' lead to 4-1.

In the bottom of the fifth, B-E had baserunners on first and second with no outs. After Kody Breland hit into a fielder's choice at second and got thrown out at second on a steal attempt, the Red Raiders settled for a two-out RBI double by Moore to make it 5-1.

Johnsonville cut the lead to 5-2 in the sixth on an RBI single by Kris Proctor. With two baserunners aboard and two outs, Sandifer escaped further damage by getting Taylor Strickland to lineout to leftfield.

After B-E failed to capitalize on another run-scoring opportunity in the bottom of the sixth, Johnsonville mounted a final rally. The Flashes had runners on second and third for Alex Skinner who sent Sandifer's 1-2 pitch into the outfield to cut B-E's lead to one run.

Once Sandifer recomposed himself, he got his sixth and final strikeout to keep alive B-E's hopes of winning its first state title since 1995. Standing in the way is Chesterfield, who shut out Dixie 9-0 in the Upper State title game to set up the school's third post-season matchup this school year against B-E.

Having lost to the Tigers at home this past December in the Lower State final as a member of the football team, Bamberg will carry plenty of motivation into the best-of-three series which starts Monday in Chesterfield and continues Wednesday at 6 p.m.

"They beat us in wrestling too," Bamberg said. "I don't know if we have any wrestlers on our team. Chesterfield seems to have had our number this year. We're looking to change that.

"It's going to take everybody playing the best ball that we played all year. We can't let the mental mistakes happen that happen tonight. We've got to bring our 'A' game."

n T&D Senior Sports Writer Thomas Grant Jr. can be reached by e-mail at tgrant@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5547. Discuss this and other stories on-line at TheTandD.com.

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