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ROCK HILL, S.C. -- The sun was literally setting behind the batter’s eye, just as it was figuratively setting on his high school baseball career.
As the batting-practice pitch from his father arrived at the plate, Parker McGee took one sweet swing, watched the long fly ball land beyond the left-field wall near a light tower and rounded the bases as a recording of his mother’s voice played over the public-address system.
“We love you, we are extremely proud of you, and we eagerly await your next adventure,” the message from Angie McGee read. “However, to us, you will always be that little boy wearing an oversized floppy hat and a glove that is a little too big, with excited energy as you step onto a field for the very first time.”
High school graduation – and its accompanying final inning of a senior season -- is a major marker of time. And for the last two seasons, on Senior Night, the Legion Collegiate Academy Lancers have marked it in a way that resonates not just with the community in this Charlotte suburb but across the country.
When the final home game is over, the senior players line up with their parents. One by one, each player takes one last trip to the plate. His dad throws him a pitch, and the player swings and makes contact before rounding the bases. A message written and recorded by his mother plays over the PA, and then mom is waiting for him at home plate.
A video from the Lancers’ 2025 Senior Night ceremony went viral. You didn’t have to be a baseball parent -- or even a parent at all -- to emotionally connect to the content. We’ve all moved on from one season of life to another, all had someone who nurtured our ascent, all felt the bittersweet passage of time in some way.
So when McGee had his turn in late April, when he trotted to home plate and then into his mother’s arms, it was almost enough to smear his eye black with tears.
“It just takes me back,” said McGee, who will continue his baseball career at the University of South Carolina Upstate. “All the long days at the field with my mom and my dad. It takes me back to those days when baseball wasn’t too serious yet and we were just trying to figure things out.”
The Lancers have figured out a way to honor not only their seniors, but the families and communities who give so much of themselves to this sport.
“A lot of these guys have played together since they were 8 or 9 or 10 years old,” Lancers head coach Hamilton Bennett said. “The families have gone to hotels together, eaten together, spent summers together, falls together. And this is just a chance to celebrate them as a group and celebrate these young men and honor the families and all the hard work and dedication and money and time they’ve put into this.”
Bennett, himself a former pitcher in the Mets’ Minor League system, first experienced a version of this Senior Night ceremony when he was an assistant at nearby Fort Mill High School under head coach Travis Collier. When Legion Collegiate Academy baseball coach Jalen Benjamin passed away in a tragic auto accident in 2024, Bennett took his place and brought the Senior Night ceremony with him to a grieving baseball community that appreciated the significance of the salute all the more.
In the video that went viral from 2025, an announcer reads the notes from the players’ moms.
This year, parent Pam Williams, whose son Coalson was a senior pitcher on the team, collected recordings from the rest of the baseball moms so that their own voices could be played aloud, their messages of love and wisdom poured from pen to PA system.
Pam said it took her about 40 takes to get through her recording without crying.
“There are things we try to say to our kids often and remind them of,” she said. “But to have a moment where it’s their last time they can take a lap around the field and hear their mom speak and say those words, you just hope they hear it and it resonates with them.”
This year’s team had nine seniors moving on to play baseball at the college level and one joining the military. Their parents hope the words that played on Senior Night will reverberate with them:
“Being your mom is the greatest gift of my life. And I will always be your biggest fan.”
“We’ve driven thousands of miles to games and eaten more concession stand meals than we’d like to admit. I want you to know there’s not a single second that we wouldn’t do over. It was all worth it. YOU were worth it.”
“Don’t think, just do. And keep being you.”
“Treasure the family that surrounds you today. It is a gift. And hold tight to the friendships you’ve built along the way. The laughter, the moments, the brotherhood and the love of your team. Those are pieces of your story that will be with you forever.”
Tammy Pond watched her son Matthew run the bases on Senior Night on the eve of his 18th birthday.
“For us, it was like the end of childhood,” she said. “The last childhood lap before college and adulthood starts.”
It’s a heavy thought. And here in this South Carolina community, where baseball has become a year-round sport that demands so much time, attention and money from parents helping their kids pursue their athletic dreams, you can feel its weight.
“If [other schools] adopt it, by all means,” Bennett said. “Any way we can get the community together and celebrate these young men is what we should be doing. We shouldn’t be tearing each other down, regardless of what school or colors you wear. Baseball is one of the hardest things to do in all of sports, and we should celebrate these young men for their accomplishments, whether that is going into the Air Force or going to college to play baseball or if they do make it to professional baseball, we should still honor and celebrate the small details of their life every single day.”
As he neared home plate, McGee stopped for a moment on the third-base line. He closed his eyes and listened to the end of his mother’s message of love and support. Then he made those last few strides to the plate, touched his cleats to that white rubber slab and got the hug that let him know he had made it home.