The University of South Carolina baseball team made an inspired run to the 2010 College World Series championship.
Bayler Teal and family (photo, Post and Courier)
Charlie Perez with Karen Tanner (photo USC Gamecocks)
Bayler Teal and Charlie Perez were battling cancer. That year, the team met the boys and heard their story. South Carolina was inspired and adopted both of them. Players would continue to visit them in the hospital to see how they were doing. When the team broke out of their huddle, they would yell, “1-2-3- BAYLER,” and the team put the initials of both boys on their baseball caps.
Bayler was fighting a two-year battle with neuroblastoma, a rare form of cancer. The 7-year-old boy passed away around the same time the Gamecocks were rallying to beat Oklahoma in a 12-inning elimination game after being down to their last strike. Bayler was wearing his South Carolina baseball cap when he passed.
Ray Tanner, the South Carolina coach at the time, paid tribute to Bayler after the Gamecocks defeated the UCLA Bruins to win the national championship. “He’s gone to a greater place now,” Tanner said. “I’m sure he’s watching down on us right now, smiling.”
This story is told in the documentary, SEC Storied: In Spirit, airing on the SEC Network.
