American Legion Area 3 Tournament: Charleston Post 65 rallies past Beckley Bash Post 32

Charleston ties the game in the seventh inning and wins it in the eighth

For most of the game Thursday, Charleston Post 65 appeared to be snake-bit in its Area 3 American Legion Tournament opening round contest against the Beckley Bash Post 32 at Linda K. Epling Stadium.

Hard shots and line drives found the gloves of the Post 32 defenders, a few ending in bang-bang double plays.

Ironically enough, it was a bloop single that saved the day.

With his team trailing 2-0 in the top of the seventh inning, Gage Tawney stepped in a gave Post 65 new life.

Down to his last strike with two outs and the bases loaded, Tawney poked a single into short-right field, just out of the reach of the diving Beckley defender to tie the game.

In the first extra frame with a runner at third base, Rocco Lazo then ripped a deep sacrifice fly to the wall in left-field for the eventual game winner.

Charleston added two more in the eighth inning to secure a 5-2 win.

Post 65 now plays South Charleston Post 94 Mad Dogs Thursday night at 7 p.m. at Linda K. Epling Stadium. The winner is guaranteed a berth in the American Legion State Tournament.

The loser of Thursday's game will battle Beckley Post 32 Friday in an elimination game in the double-elimination format. The winner of Friday's game also earns a spot in the state tournament.

"Tawney is a great player for us," Charleston head coach Sam Buckner said. "Everyone of these guys are great players for us. We talk about it all the time, have discipline with the bats. Make sure you get your pitch in the counts. (Beckley) has great pitching top-to-bottom."

"When the pressure comes in, everybody reacts," Buckner went on to say. "We hung in there and had the opportunity to win. These kids showed grit. Grittiest win we have had all year."

Beckley had controlled the game going into the seventh inning. Solid defense and a pair of RBI's from Independence all-state selection Cole Cunningham gave Post 32 the 2-0 lead.

However, some great defensive plays had masked the fact that Charleston was hitting the ball hard, just not in the proper places.

"I felt like we hit the first pitcher really good, we just hit is right at somebody," Buckner said. "We just couldn't get any (balls) down and they made some plays."

Needing three outs to secure the win, Beckley head coach Jordan Meadows turned to his top pitcher, Cole Brown, to work the seventh.

"Cole has been our (No.) 1 all year," Meadows said. "Against South Charleston (in the regular season), he did the same stuff, but in a situation where I need him, I will do that 10 (times) out of 10. We were down to the last strike, but that is baseball."

A pair of walks and a single loaded the bases for Charleston with no outs. However, an infield fly and a pop out in foul ground dimmed the hopes for the visitors.

With the count on Tawney sitting at two balls and two strikes, Brown painted the outside of the plate, but it was just off of the strike zone. One pitch later, the former Charleston Catholic standout found just enough of the ball for a base hit.

Beckley Post 32 had an opportunity to walk-it-off in the bottom of the inning, but could not get the key hit.

"We had a guy on second in the bottom of the seventh and didn't get the hit. Lack of execution and situational hitting is what killed us today," Meadows said. "We can't seem to hit the ball at home and I am not sure why. They have a lot of fun on the road, but we can't seem to do it here."

Having new life going to the eighth inning, Charleston took full advantage scoring three runs.

The game-winning blow came from Lazo, but Charleston padded the lead with RBI-singles from Devon Hatfield and Grant Barclay.

"We started off really slow and we didn't get the bats moving, but we had a heck of a performance by Luke Blaydes through seven innings," Buckner said. "He played great and kept his pitch count down and was able to stay in it with ground balls. He gave us an opportunity to come back there at the end."

Hatfield came on to close out the game in the final inning for Post 65.

Beckley now waits to face the loser of Thursday's contest, Friday at 6 p.m.

"That is the good thing about double-elimination, (we) win one game you are in the state tournament. Friday is a winner take all game, no matter who we play," Meadows said. "Yeah, it hurts tonight, but if we win one game we are at the dance. We have enough pitching to win. We have enough defense to win. We just have to get some runs across the board."