Nash County claims Area I Legion Baseball title

Click to view

(Note: Four pictures are in the gallery)

ROCKY MOUNT - For the first time since 1973, Nash County Post 58 will be vying for a North Carolina American Legion state championship.

Post 58 completed its march to Greenville, site of the state tournament, Monday evening with an 8-5 victory over Cary Post 67 at Northern Nash High School. The win gave Post 58 a 3-0 sweep of Cary and the team's first Area I title since 1986. Post 58's last state title came in 1973.

Nash County (20-4) will open play in the eight-team event at Clark-LeClair Stadium on the campus of East Carolina University Saturday at 4:30 p.m. against either Mooresville Post 66 or Rowan County Post 342. Rowan County currently has a 1-0 lead in their best-of-three Area III series.

Nash County won Game 1 with Cary 15-0 in seven innings Saturday when T.J Taylor and Mike Williams combined for a six-hit shutout. Post 58 then sneaked past Post 67 Sunday 7-6 (a Ben Fish RBI double scored Xavier Macklin from first for the winning run) to get in the catbird seat for Monday's clinching matchup.

A two-home run evening by Tyler Clark, a two-run bomb by Xavier Macklin and great relief pitching by Bill Clark highlighted Monday's championship effort.

"I can't tell you how proud I am of these guys," said second-year Post 58 head coach Matt Bryan. "This was our goal at the beginning of the season. And considering we didn't get together as a total team until early June is a testament to how hard these guys worked to get here."

There were holdups to getting the squad together.

Bryan is an assistant coach at Eastern Wayne, which made the NCHSAA 3-A state championship series. His involvement there limited his involvement with Nash County early on. Eastern Wayne also played Northern Nash in the East finals - which held up the Knights' players who were to join the team.

Also, Post 58 played just 10 regular season games.

"When we finally got all our guys together, I knew we had a special bunch," Bryan said. "With the addition of players like Xavier Macklin and Bill Clark, we knew we had a complete team."

Monday night, Post 58 trailed early. Dylon Kipp's two-run home run off Nash County starter Brandon Denton had it down 2-0. But Post 58 rallied in the second to tie it at 2-all. With two outs, Dillon Cockrell singled, followed by a single by Gabe Brown. Grant Johnson then singled to left, but the left fielder misplayed the ball - allowing both Cockrell and Brown to score.

Post 67 (23-10) countered in the third with two more runs - one coming on Wyatt Medlin's solo shot. Macklin's and Clark's big bombs in the bottom of the inning put Post 58 up 5-3.
Cary added a run in the fourth to tie it at 5-all. Clark then sent a two-run blast over the fence in right-center in the fifth for a 7-5 Post 58 advantage.

Cary threatened in the sixth when it loaded the bases with one out. Bryan then lifted Denton for Clark and it turned out to be a stroke of genius.

Clark struck out the last two batters to end Cary's threat, then allowed just two base runners (walk, base hit) the rest of the night. He struck out five. Denton got the win to improve to 7-1 on the season.

Nash County, which had 11 hits on the night, got an insurance run in the eighth on Cockrell's sacrifice bunt that scored Ben Fish from third.

"A difference for us this season is the support we have gotten from so many people," said Bryan, whose squad fell in two straight games in the first round of the Area I East tournament to New Bern last year. "From the parents, the fans, people like Joe Bell, Grady Griffin, Eddie Loesner ... I can't thank them all enough. When you get support like that, it's so much easier to just go out there and play."


N.C. American Legion Baseball
Area I Finals

Game 3

Nash County Post 58 8
Cary Post 67 5

Post 67  202 100 000 - 5  8  2
Post 58  023 020 01x - 8  11 2

WP - Brandon Denton (7-1; 5.1IP, 7H, 5R, 3ER, 4BB, 9K)
LP - James Todd (6IP, 8H, 7R, 3ER, 2B, 4K)

Leading Hitters:

Post 67 - Drew Woodall 2-3, RBI; Wyatt Medlin 2-4, HR, RBI, R; Dylan Kipp 1-4, HR, 2 RBI, R.

Post 58 - Tyler Clark 2-4, 2 HRs, 3 RBI, 2R; Xavier Macklin 2-4, HR, 2 RBI, R; Collins Cuthrell 2-4, 2B, R; Dillon Cockrell 1-3, RBI, R; Gabe Brown 1-2, R; Grant Johnson 1-2, Ben Fish 1-4, 2R; Cameron Ramsey 1-4

Records: Post 67 23-10; Post 58 20-4.