"We’re from Cayce, West Columbia and we’re ain’t like the popular guy on the strip. But, we can play. I tell you, we can play.” ”

West Columbia head coach Dargan Lybrand

A week of adversity has seen the West Columbia Post 79 baseball team overcome illness and player departures for college.

It’s now 1 game away from becoming the S.C. American Baseball Summer League champions. Saturday afternoon at Segra Park, West Columbia defeated Fort Mill 8-4 to advance to the final. 

“It’s been a struggle with the (covid-19) going on, said pitcher/infielder Bradley Turner, who converted the game-ending double play after providing 4 innings of relief. “We lost 2 of our best guys. We’re doing everything we can using some guys that don’t pitch much and we’re just pushing through with our bats.”

West Columbia (16-2-1) answered Fort Mill’s run off a wild pitch by Kameron Dunlap in the top of the 1st with 4 runs in the bottom half of the inning. Landon Lucas and Alex Pegues of Pelion each had RBI singles, Dylan Williamson of Pelion doubled home a run and Joshua Wise had an RBI fielder’s choice.

After a groundout in the top of the 2nd, West Columbia pitchers Dunlap and Turner combined to walk 4 consecutive batters. Fort Mill mustered only 1 run as Turner struck out Kolby Crepeau and Chase Dougherty to end the half inning.

An RBI single by Josh Lehman cut West Columbia’s lead to 4-3 in the top of the 5th. West Columbia loaded the bases in the bottom half of the inning, setting up an RBI sacrifice fly by Reign Lybrand to make it 5-3.

After a leadoff walk by Dylan Johnson of White Knoll in the bottom 6th, play was halted for 30 minutes to cover the field from rainfall. Once the game resumed, West Columbia quickly loaded the bases.

This brought Lucas to the plate. He battled Fort Mill reliever John Boyna for 12 pitches before sending the ball deep enough to rightfield to score a run. 

“It’s a testament from where we’re from,” West Columbia head coach head coach Dargan Lybrand said. “We’re from Cayce, West Columbia and we’re ain’t like the popular guy on the strip. But, we can play. I tell you, we can play.” 

Williamson also followed with an RBI sacrifice fly and Wise singled home a run to make it 8-3.

Fort Mill mounted a final rally in the top of the 7th. Crepeau hit a 1-out double and scored on Dougherty’s single. Lybrand was pulled from 1st base to relieve Turner, who was moved to 2nd base.

Fittingly, Turner closed out the victory as he caught Lehman’s liner and threw out Dougherty at 1st for the game-ending double play.

West Columbia will await the winner of the 11 am elimination game Sunday between Fort Mill (15-3) and Greer (15-1), which eliminated Sumter with a 3-0 victory Saturday. Should West Columbia lose the 1:30 pm final, it would play again at 5 pm Monday to determine the champion.

“That’s a big advantage for us,” Dargan Lybrand said. “We don’t want to have to play 2 games. Just come out here and play 1. But, the only thing about that is that they (Fort Mill and Greer) are in a live or die. So, they’re going to do everything they can to try to win a game. Which we are too. We don’t want to play 2 either. We’ve got our pitching, so we want to win that 1st game.”