Taylor Norfleet of West End is the third baseman for the Francis Marion baseball team that qualified for the NCAA Division II College World Series played in Montgomery, Ala. The Patriots were eliminated on Monday in a 3-2 10-inning loss to West Chester.
Norfleet's mother, Jackie Thamm, was in her car ready to head home from Alabama when a woman tapped her window.
"Are you the mother of No. 31?" Thamm recalled the woman asking. "My son was the batboy, and your son gave him his glove and a bat. I just can't tell you how much that meant to my son."
The batboy was a local youth, about 12 years of age. Norfleet, who was home this week for a few days before reporting to the Rock Hill (S.C.) team of the Southern Collegiate Baseball League (wooden bat), appreciated the spirit of the boy and the way he pulled for the team.
"The coolest thing about him," Norfleet said, "was that he wanted us to win pretty good. He was always trying to keep everybody hyped up."
The freshman was a member of the most successful baseball team in the history of Francis Marion. The Patriots were ranked third in the nation in Division II after winning the South Atlantic Regional held in Milledgeville, Ga., the week before. They finished the season with a record of 41-18.
In the 7-4 regional championship victory over Georgia College and State University, Norfleet went two for four with a run scored and two RBIs. He was also named to the All-South Atlantic Regional tournament team.
"It was the most amazing thing I've done so far in baseball," Norfleet said of being a part of the regional and World Series runs. "I knew the team was good, but I didn't expect that. It was awesome to go as far as we did."
An all-state selection in his senior year at Pinecrest, Norfleet began his collegiate career by getting only one base hit in his first 14 trips to the plate.
After going two for four with four RBIs in the sixth game of the season against Belmont Abbey, he started every game the rest of the way.
About midway through the season, the Francis Marion cleanup hitter broke the school record for RBIs.
He finished with 53, tied for eighth best in the Peach Belt Conference.
His other stats included a batting average of .327, 68 hits, 12 doubles, two home runs and 31 runs scored.
In early April, he was named the Peach Belt Conference Rookie of the Week. At the end of the conference season, he was selected as the Peach Belt Conference Freshman of the Year.
Add to that the fact that Norfleet made the Peach Belt Presidential Honor Roll (students with a GPA of 3.0 or more) and there is plenty for Thamm and Norfleet's father, Jim Norfleet of Laurinburg, to be proud of.
But Tham was really struck by her son thinking about a boy that was probably a lot like him in his love of baseball, right after a disappointing loss.
"He told me," Thamm said, "‘Mom, he was so terrific the way he helped us keep our heads up.'"
