In the opening game of their first round best of three American Legion baseball playoff matchup with Horry County Post 111, West Columbia Post 79 fell short 8-6 Tuesday at White Knoll High School.

Airport graduate pitcher John Allen Forrester produced early with a solo home run in the bottom of the first inning. Kennedy Ramsey followed with an RBI single to score Aubrey Richardson to make it 2-0.

Horry County responded in the second inning with a leadoff home run by Tre Johnson over the rightfield wall. With the bases loaded, Clif Venters' singled home a run to tie the game.

With Jordan Gibbs on first following an error, Forrester added a second home run to give West Columbia a 4-2 lead at the end of the second inning.

A 3-run rally in the fourth inning gave Horry County the lead for good. Wesley Allen hit an RBI single and T.J. Anderson followed with a bases-clearing two-run triple.

Horry County had seen enough of Forrester, intentionally walking him in both the fifth and sixth innings. This allowed Post 111 to add to its lead with three runs in the top of the seventh inning, two on a single by Venters.

West Columbia loaded the bases in the bottom half of the inning. Horry County walked Forrester a third straight time to force in a run and Ramsey scored on a wild pitch.

Anderson was able to strike out the final two batters to close out West Columbia.

The two teams play the rescheduled Game One Wednesday in Conway with a return trip to the same location Thursday if Game Three is necessary.

The winner will face Camden Post 17 in the second round starting Monday. 

Lexington 6, Greenville 0

A combination of scoreless pitching and offense from Lexington High School graduates enabled Post 7 to force a deciding game with the Warbirds.

A 4-run third inning highlighted by a 3-run homer by Caleb Warren was more than enough for Lexington.

Starter Anthony Plotkin and reliever Zach Cowart of River Bluff each allowed two hits and combined for five strikeouts.

Cole Long, Bennett Robinson and Charlie Compton of Northside Christian Academy all drove in a run and accounted for three of the team's six hits.

Game 3 is scheduled for Wednesday at Lexington High School. The winner will face either Fort Mill Post 43 or Inman Post 45 in the second round for a berth in the state tournament which starts July 25 and concludes July 30 in Columbia.

Fort Mill won Game 1 6-5 Tuesday at home.

Sumter 6, Chapin-Newberry 3

By Tim Leible

tim@theitem.com

The Sumter P-15s spent Tuesday night searching for a clutch base hit to keep their season alive in the first round of the South Carolina American Legion playoffs against Chapin-Newberry.

For four innings, it looked like that hit may not come.

Stepping up to fill the void were Jashawn Benbow and Hayden Lyons.

After Clayton Goff and Austin Trapp started a 2-out rally, Benbow sliced a single to left to bring the score to 3-2 in Chapin-Newberry’s favor.

Lyons followed with his own liner to left for a single, but Paul Taylor couldn’t get a glove on the ball. As the shot trickled all the way to the outfield wall, Trapp and Benbow came around to score and Lyons shouted as he stepped on third base having delivered what proved to be the game-winning run.

Some aggressive baserunning ended the rally with a Lyons attempted steal of home, but the damage was done. Sumter added two more runs in the sixth to pad their lead and rode an excellent relief appearance from Dubose Rembert to a 6-3 win.

The Post 15 victory forced a deciding Game 3 at Newberry College on Wednesday.

While Sumter had the late dramatics, Chapin-Newberry struck first on P-15 starter Hunter Hoff. Hoff allowed the first two batters to reach on a hit batter on a walk, which set up a Matthew Lively RBI single a night after he delivered the game-tying tie and walk off win for Post 193/24 in Game 1.

Hoff got out of the inning without any more damage.

Sumter nearly responded in the second inning as two errors and a walk loaded the bases for Davis Campbell with just one out. The Sumter right fielder struck out looking before Tyler Jones popped out to George Schodowski on the mound to end the threat.

Chapin-Newberry found themselves in a similar situation in the third. Lively opened the inning with a double that nearly went over the fence in left before a single by Michael Linder put runners on the corners.

A Gray Wells' groundout plated one run and allowed Linder to advance to second with just one out. Hoff buckled down and struck out the next two batters to hold Post 193/24 to just one run.

The P-15s came back with their first run of the game in the bottom of the frame. Catcher Travis Pillsbury singled to open the inning and advanced to third on consecutive groundouts from Goff and Trapp. Schodowski set himself to get out of the inning unscathed by forcing a weak grounder by Benbow, but the speedy centerfielder reached as Schodowski and his catcher couldn’t come up with the ball, bringing the score to 2-1.

Chapin-Newberry pushed their lead to 3-1 in the fourth. Chris Wise opened the inning with a single before Paul Taylor was hit by a pitch. Blake Martin grounded into a fielder’s choice, putting runners on the corner before an RBI single by Luke White.

Another fielder’s choice and a hit batter loaded the bases, but a sharp grounder by Wells was snagged by Trapp at first. Trapp narrowly won the race to the bag for the final out of the inning.

After the fourth, Hoff handed the ball to Rembert. Hoff surrendered three earned runs on six hits, striking out four and walking one. Rembert came in and was nearly perfect. He closed out the final three innings, scattering two hits and a walk. He struck out two batters as he earned the victory.

Schodowski pitched a complete game for Chapin-Newberry with the final two runs marked as unearned after a throwing error plated the first Sumter run in the sixth and the second scored on a 2-out double from Pillbury.

Sumter managed 10 hits against the Dutch Fork pitcher. He walked one and struck out three.

Wednesday's winner opens the second round Monday at top seed Charleston Post 147.