American Legion Baseball State Tournament: Beckley Bash tops Charleston to move to the championship series

Beckley is two wins away from the American Legion State Title

Morgantown - Beckley Bash Post 32 head coach Jordan Meadows was convinced prior to the Area 3 American Legion Baseball Tournament if his team made the state tournament, he liked its chances.

Monday, the Beckley Bash (21-14-1) will indeed play for the West Virginia State American Legion title.

Trailing 1-0 after the top of the second inning, Beckley ran off six runs and held off Area 3 rival Charleston Post 65, 6-3 on Dale Miller Field at Mylan Park Stadium.

Beckley will play again Monday at 1 p.m. against either Wheeling Post 1 or Berkeley Post 14 who play later Sunday night.

If Wheeling wins, Beckley must beat Post 1 twice for the title. If Post 14 is victorious, Beckley will need to beat Berkeley first before playing Wheeling in a winner take-all showdown.

Brayden Kiblinger worked a bases loaded walk to even the score for Post 32 in the bottom of the second before Jake Meadows singled to give Beckley a 2-1 lead.

When the Charleston defender hesitated behind second base, Grayson Kesterson raced home for a two-run lead.

Riding the momentum of the second double play of the game, the Bash Boys rang up two more in the third frame.

With runners at second and third base and no outs, Ashton Cochran's grounder scored Cole Cunningham ahead of Levi Barnett making it 5-1 on a sacrifice fly by Cole "Snake-bite" Brown.

The final Beckley run in the bottom of the sixth came on a two-out single from Meadows, scoring Kesterson who doubled two-batters earlier.

Charleston added two runs in the seventh, but Brady Williams closed the door for the Bash.

Layne Lambert pitched 4.2 innings allowing only one hit and one run to get the win. Meadows drove in three runs, while Cochran, Brown and Kiblinger each had an RBI.