Fort Mill Post 43 advances to next round of Legion baseball playoffs
Using a scoring onslaught summoned from earlier in the season, the Fort Mill Post 43 baseball team swept its way into the second round of the American Legion state playoffs by beating Greenwood Post 20 3-0 in the best of five series.
Fort Mill outscored Greenwood 38-12 in the three-game series and now will face Gaffney Post 109 in the second round in another best of five series starting Wednesday.
“I am very proud of how our guys came out this week and took care of business,” said head coach Tom Skula. “It was great to sweep and have the ability to rest our pitchers for this upcoming week against Gaffney.”
Post 43 took game one 12-3 and game two on the road 12-1 before finishing off Greenwood in game three 14-9. Fort Mill took an 8-2 lead in the fourth inning, but Post 20 battled back to eventually tie the game at 9-9.
“Going into this series we knew Greenwood was a very young team,” Skula said. “The players battled hard all series and really competed in game three. Greenwood has a lot to look forward to in the coming years with the young talent they have.”
Turning point
Tied 9-9, Fort Mill scored three runs in the sixth inning on three hits as Anthony Alejandro launched a two-run home run scoring himself and Carter McCrain, who walked earlier in the inning. Kobie MacKinnon singled and was driven in by Nick Hoffman later in the inning to give Post 43 a 12-9 lead.
Critical
Fort Mill’s bats were hot the entire series, collecting 14 hits in game three to go with 17 hits in game two and 12 hits in game one.
“I am excited to see that we are continuing to improve as a team,” Skula said. “I am proud that we have really started to cut down on mental mistakes as a team. We continue to hit the ball extremely well and continue to play our brand of baseball.”
Star contributions
In game three against Greenwood, Fort Mill was led at the plate by MacKinnon, who went 3-5 and Justin Kerosetz, Joey Tepper and Zach Evans also collected two hits in the game.
On deck
Post 43 will have at least one home game against Gaffney Thursday, July 13 and potentially Saturday, July 15. If Fort Mill can win the series against Gaffney, they will be locked into the state tournament which will be held July 22-26 in Sumter.
Mac Banks: mbanks@comporium.net, @MacBanksFM
Box score
Fort Mill 14, Greenwood 9
Greenwood 1;0;1; 5;2;0; 0;0;0-;9;11;3
Fort Mill 2;5;1; ;1;0;3; 0;2;x-14;14;2
Leading hitters:
Fort Mill – Kobie MacKinnon 3-5; Joey Tepper 2-5 triple, 2 RBI; Justin Kerosetz 2-5 RBI; Zach Evans 2-5 double; Nick Hoffman 1-5 2 RBI; Evan Lammers 1-5 double, 2 RBI.
Record
Fort Mill 12-3
This story was originally published July 9, 2017 at 7:44 PM with the headline "Fort Mill Post 43 advances to next round of Legion baseball playoffs."