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Post 232’s offense, defense disjointed in playoffs

By Chris Edwards
Citizen Journalist

After finishing third in the regular season, Garner Post 232 entered the playoffs Tuesday, June 30 with home-field advantage in the first-round best-of-five series against Raleigh Post 297.

Jordan Young laces a double to the fence for Post 232 in their series with Raleigh Post 297.

Despite the home crowd, the team struggled to put together a complete performance offense and defense. In the first half of the series, when defense was on, offense was off, and when offense was on, defense was off.

The inconsistency lost Post 232 two of the playoff games by Thursday, July 2. As of press time, Garner was down 2-1 and facing an elimination game Friday, July 3.

GAME ONE

Starting pitching got it done; offense didn’t

To start, Post 232 gave the ball to Matt Powell, who had pitched outstanding in the relief role for the team during the season, and the rising senior did not disappoint on the bump. Unfortunately for Garner, Powell wouldn’t get any run support in the start.

Powell gave up the first run of the game in the top of the second to his counterpart, Max Gagnon, as he homered to left field to give Post 297 a 1-0 lead.

Fifth inning was a killer in game one

With Post 232 trailing 1-0, the fifth inning proved to be a killer for Garner in game one of the series as with one out, Raleigh put together back-to-back-to-back singles to plate a run. Trevor Schock scored the second run of the inning on a Matt Powell pass ball. The final run of the inning scored on a single from Forest Brandt.

In the bottom of the fifth, Garner finally scored their first run of the game on a sacrifice fly from Hunter Brown.

Pulling a bit closer but not close enough

Post 232 pulled a little closer in the bottom of the sixth as Daniel Terry went deep for a two-run homerun to make the score 6-3 in favor of Post 297. That was as close as Post 232 got; Raleigh took the series opener 6-3 as Trent Faulkner got the two-inning save for Post 297.

Final thoughts

After the game, Post 232 Head Coach Chris Cook had some final thoughts to wrap up the night.

“[Powell] didn’t get any run support, and it’s hard to pitch against a good team when you don’t have any runs to play with and you don’t have any margin of error.

“In the most inopportune times we put guys on base and didn’t score,” Cook said. “We didn’t hit, and unfortunately in American Legion Baseball, no matter how good the pitching is, you’ve got to hit. We are going to have to hit, and we just didn’t hit tonight.”

GAME THREE

Coming off a game two win

After a complete game gem from Phillip Myrick in game two of the series, Post 232 came back to Trojan Park Thursday, July 2 even with Post 297 at one apiece and looking to retake control of the series as they sent Sean Willingham to the mound.

Digging a hole

But Post 232 dug themselves into a hole to begin the game as Willingham left a lot of pitches up in the zone. As a result, Post 297 scored four in the first, including a Jake Harris double to begin the game and a two-run homerun from Max Gagnon, which really set the tone for the night.

On the comeback trail

After trailing 6-1 after three innings, Pot 232 began to turn things around in the bottom of the fourth. With two outs and a runner on second, Garner found some offense as Kyle Hedegepeth singled to right to plate Jordan Young.

Hedgepeth later scored on a Michael Zeblo single, but the big hit of the inning came from Paco Martin who singled to left to score two and tie the game at six.

Taking the lead

In the sixth, Garner wasted little time, picking up where they left off in the bottom of the fifth. Phillip Cotton led the inning with a single and later scored on a pass ball to give Post 232 the lead 7-6.

Post 232 padded the lead later in the inning with a pair of runs as Jordan Young doubled home two runs with a two-out shot to left field, giving Garner a 9-7 lead.

Bullpen gives it up

With Garner up 9-7 by the seventh inning, things really became unglued for Post 232. With a runner on second and one out, Brown fielded the ball on the mound and decided to fire to second base. The pitch was not in time to pick Clayton Daniels off second, and it put runners at first and second.

After Terry was injured during the inning, Matt Keil came on to pitch as Brown went behind the plate. After a walk loaded the bases, Keil fired a wild pitch to the back stop, but Brown got a generous hop and fired back to Keil to get the runner coming home.

Falling by the wayside

Garner was not out of the inning yet, and Charles Wolfe proved that with a three-ball, one-strike pitch that he mashed over the leftfield wall for a grand slam.

But Garner let another scoring chance go by the wayside in the seventh. In the eighth, Post 297 continued to pile it on with a five spot, and the big hit of the inning was a two-run homerun from Forest Brandt.

Post 232 dropped game three of the series, losing 16-9 against Raleigh.

Related articles:

• A look back at Post 232
• Post 232 downs Apex in a more conventional fashion
• Hit and miss with Post 232

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