By Thomas Grant Jr.
The battle for second place in American Legion Baseball League 3 has come down to the final day for two local teams.
West Columbia Post 79 returned to action after a bye week and moved into a tie with Lexington Post 7 heading into Wednesday’s regular-season finales. Both teams engaged in the second of a home-at-home matchup.
This was made possible after Monday’s 6-2 loss by Post 7 to League 3 champion Richland Post 215 at Ben Lippen School.
Lexington (7-5, 6-5) trailed 3-0 after four innings before cutting the deficit to 3-2 in the Top 4th. Richland’s bullpen held Post 7 scoreless the rest of the way to claim the first-round bye in the South Carolina American Legion playoffs.
With a win Tuesday at Brookland-Cayce High School over Orangeburg Post 4, West Columbia would tie Lexington in the standings. It defeated Orangeburg 5-1 led by a complete game effort by Airport graduate Graham Whittle.
The Coker College signee struck out eight batters and allowed seven hits and one run in seven innings. He was also supported in the field defensively as West Columbia collected two double plays to end Post 4 scoring threats.
Post 79 managed only four hits, three of which resulted in RBI by Addison Keisler, Ken Wright, and Thomas Donaldio.
West Columbia (10-6, 6-5) would clinch second place and homefield advantage in the first round with a win at Orangeburg or a Lexington loss to Richland at Lexington High School. It holds the run differential tiebreaker over Post 7 after the two teams split their four meetings.
Chapin/Newberry Post 193/24
A League 6 title remained in the cards for Chapin/Newberry Post 193/24.
It returned to action Monday at Newberry College and defeated Anderson Post 14 by a 5-2 score. Starting pitcher Tyler Stephenson allowed just one hit and struck out six in 6 1/3 innings for the win.
Blair Moore drove in two runs and Bryce Satterwhite and Cooper Raines each had an RBI. Matthew Rollison picked up the save as Anderson rallied for two runs in the Top 7th.
The win kept Chapin/Newberry Post 193/24 (9-7, 6-4) a game behind Golden Strip Post 271 with two games left against Anderson on the road Wednesday and home Friday. Should the two teams end the season tied, Post 271 would win the league title based on the head-to-head tiebreaker.
Feature Photo: West Columbia Post 79’s Addison Keisler slides safely across home plate.
