Fort Mill wins Legion baseball league title with doubleheader sweep of Rock Hill Monday night

With one week left in the American Legion baseball regular season, Fort Mill Post 43 secured the League V title sweeping a doubleheader against Rock Hill Post 34 Monday evening.

Fort Mill won 5-1 and 15-5 to improve to 12-1 this season, while Rock Hill dropped to 4-6. It was Fort Mill’s first league title since 2004.

“This is an exciting time for Fort Mill Post 43,” said coach Tom Skula. “This is the first time we have won the League V title in over a decade. This is a great group of kids we have this year. They come to the ball park and play hard every day. We have an incredible lineup. It's great to have secured home field advantage and I look forward to starting the playoffs next week.”

The first game of the doubleheader was resumed after a month with Fort Mill leading 5-0 in the top of the fourth and up to bat. The game was suspended due to lighting on May 28.

Fort Mill Post 43 had taken that lead on a two-run home run by Clay Hunt back in May in the first inning and then added three more runs in the third inning on a single by catcher Justin Tepper and a two-run double by Mason Jordan.

Fort Mill’s Clay Helvey had initially gotten the start and had pitched three innings at that point, allowing just a hit from Rock Hill Post 34, while walking one and striking out three.

The game resumed with nearly new lineups and Fort Mill batting in the top of the fourth inning. Brandon Fite took over for Helvey on the mound for Fort Mill and Rock Hill’s Cam Smith took over for Will Reid.

Rock Hill led off the bottom of the fourth with a double by Dupree Hart. Hart, the state’s Mr. Baseball, scored on an error by Fort Mill to put Rock Hill on the board.

Fort Mill didn’t have anything to happen in fifth inning and Rock Hill threatened as leadoff hitter Brandon Ashley got on with an error, but was caught in a 5-3 double play to end the inning.

Fort Mill threatened in the top of the sixth as Fite singled after Smith gave up two walks. However, Fort Mill grounded into a double play to end its effort to score.

In the bottom of the sixth, Hart singled with one out, but again, Fort Mill got help as Rock Hill grounded into another double play to end the inning.

Fite shut down Rock Hill in the seventh, striking out two of the three batters to close the game. Fite struck out two batters in the four innings of work, while allowing two hits and just one walk.

In the second game, Fort Mill Post 43 used a 13-run fourth inning to rally from down 5-1 and put the game out of reach.

Fort Mill took an early 1-0 lead after the top of the first inning by having Tepper sacrifice in Matt Navarro, who singled earlier in the inning to get on.

Rock Hill Post 34 threatened in the bottom of the first with two singles from Reid and first baseman Josh Alley. A bases loaded walk to second baseman Caleb Hamilton tied the game at 1-1 with just one out. Outfielder Drew Patrick singled later in the inning to make it 3-1.

Fort Mill’s Josh Jones led off with a double in the second inning, but was picked off and Reid cruised through the line-up from there. In the bottom of the second, Hart led off with a double and Smith would walk before Reid doubled them both in to make it 5-1.

In the top of the fourth, Fort Mill tallied 13 runs on six hits and four Rock Hill errors.

To start, Fort Mill got two base runners on due to consecutive errors from Rock Hill with just one out. Fort Mill added a run on a passed ball. Outfielder Tommy Miller then singled in Jordan and Jones. Two more passed balls put Fort Mill ahead and Navarro kept things going with an RBI single.

Tepper singled to drive in a run and Jones hit a bases clearing triple to score two more for Fort Mill. Miller, who singled earlier in the inning, also tripled, scoring Jackson Massey later in the inning.

In the bottom of the fourth, Rock Hill again started hitting Leonard so he was replaced with Jones, who forced Post 34 to ground into a double play getting Leonard off the hook and Fort Mill out of the inning.

This story was originally published June 30, 2015 at 6:13 AM with the headline "Fort Mill wins Legion baseball league title with doubleheader sweep of Rock Hill Monday night."