By the end of the week, the West Columbia Post 79 baseball team will know if it makes the American Legion playoffs or not.

West Columbia had Greenwood scheduled Tuesday and Wednesday and Aiken Friday. All are Region 8 games.

With a 4-7 record, if West Columbia can win those three games, the team will make the playoffs along with League VIII front-runner Chapin/Newberry. And first-year head coach Johnny Harper is pleased to be in that position.

“I’m real proud of this team,” Harper said. “They’ve worked really hard.”

Harper said his team has hit some bumps this year, but it’s more of a youth problem than it is the quality of the team.

“We’re real young,” Harper said. “We only have 3-4 players coming back from last year.”

Because of the youth, Harper said he is optimistic about 2019.

“I’ll have 14 players coming back next year,” said Harper, adding he’ll have his eyes open too, for more talent to add to his future teams.

“I believe in building a foundation with younger players,” he said. “Get them young and teach them the fundamentals.”

The West Columbia team consists of players, under the age of 19, from Airport, Brookland-Cayce, White Knoll, Gray, and Heathwood Hall.

West Columbia’s assistant coaches are Rusty Watts, Joey Wilson, and Jamie Padgett.

Harper, a Brookland-Cayce High School graduate, is well-known in recreational league coaching circles in Lexington County. He said he wants to bring the West Columbia Legion team back to the high level of quality it experienced in the 1980s.

“I’ve learned a lot this year,” he said. And he said that will help him in the future.

Post 79 commander Billy Oswald said he played American Legion baseball and it’s important to field a team.

“I’m a veteran and I played American Legion ball,” Oswald said. “I loved it.”

Oswald said the game is good for teaching players about teamwork and discipline. He said West Columbia American Legion players who go to college get some scholarship funds to help them, too.

Over in League IV, Lexington Post 7 stood in third place in the League III/IV standings entering into the final week. It closes out with two games Wednesday at Lexington County Ball Park and Thursday on the road against Manning-Santee Post 68, and two games Monday at home and Tuesday at Sumter Post 15.

A sweep of all four games would boost Lexington’s chances of obtaining the second seed for the first round of the American Legion playoffs.

S.C. AMERICAN LEGION TOP 10 POLL

1. Camden, 2. Goose Creek/ Charleston, 3. Florence, 4. Fort Mill, 5. Rock Hill, 6. Chapin/New-berry, 7. Gaffney, 8. Inman, 9. Spartanburg, 10. Sumter

LEAGUE STANDINGS

(Through Monday)

LEAGUE III/IV Camden 8-1 Sumter 7-3 Lexington 5-3 Hartsville 3-3 Orangeburg 3-6 Manning-Santee 2-4 Dalzell 0-7

LEAGUE VIII X-Chapin/Newberry 8-1 Aiken 4-5 Greenwood 4-5 West Columbia 2-8

X-Clinched league title