By Thomas Grant Jr.
Call this week the “calm before the storm” in American Legion baseball.
It’s a relatively light schedule for Lexington Post 7, West Columbia Post 79, and Chapin/Newberry Post 193/24. The three teams will play a combined three games all out of their respective leagues.
The following week of action will have games with league title ramifications. Upon returning to action June 8, Lexington will have two straight games with League 3 leader Richland Post 215.
Lexington (6-4, 6-4) can move into a first-place tie with Richland (7-3, 7-2) with a sweep. Should that happen, Post 215 can still clinch the League 3 regular-season title with a win July 11 versus Orangeburg Post 4 at A.C. Flora High School.
West Columbia (7-5, 5-5), which defeated Greenwood Post 20 2-1 at home Monday and played host to Charleston Post 147 Tuesday, still has an outside shot of placing second in League 3. It would need to win its final two games July 9-10 against Orangeburg and have Lexington lost at least one or both games to Richland.
Post 79 and Post 7 split its four meetings this season, requiring a tiebreaker based on run differential.
In League 6, Chapin-Newberry finds itself in third place after dropping two of three games to first place Golden Strip 271 (6-3, 6-3). Following a non-league game against Fort Mill Post 43 at Newberry College on Tuesday, Chapin-Newberry closes out the season with three games against Anderson Post 14.
A sweep or two wins over Anderson would put Chapin/Newberry (8-6, 5-4) either ahead or tied with Easley Post 52 (7-8, 7-5) for second place.
Post 193/24 would hold the head-to-head tiebreaker with Post 52. It could still finish first in League 6 by winning its final three games and Golden Strip loses more than once to Greenwood.
The Round 1 Best of 3 playoff series starts July 18.
Photo by Thomas Grant Jr.- West Columbia’s Shane Hanna of Airport looked to beat Lexington Post 7’s Brandon Cromer Jr. to first base.
