A year after missing the post-season, West Columbia Post 79 is headed to the Final 4.
West Columbia fought off a furious challenge from perennial state power Florence Post 1 Wednesday at Midlands Sports Complex. it looked to close out the S.C. American Baseball Summer League Best-of-3 series in Game 2. 
Instead, Post 79 was taken to a deciding game where it held off Florence 11-9 to emerge out of Bracket 2. 
With the win, West Columbia (14-2-1) joins Sumter Post 15, Fort Mill Post 43 and last year's American Legion state tournament winner Greer for the 3-day, double-elimination tournament starting Friday at Segra Park. 
Florence forced Game 3 after a 12-7 victory in Game 2. In handing West Columbia its 1st on-field loss of the season, Florence used a 8-run 7th inning to build a 12-3 lead.
Owen Taylor had 4 of his 5 RBI in the inning, including a 3-run homer to break open the game. 
West Columbia mounted a rally in the bottom half of the inning. Simms Owens hit a leadoff solo home run. Reigns Lybrand had an RBI single and scored on a wild pitch and Alex Pegues of Pelion drove in a run on a fielder's choice.
Bradley Turner had 3 hits and Dylan Williamson of Pelion had 2 hits and a RBI which gave West Columbia a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the 3rd. 
In Game 3, Landon Lucas helped jump West Columbia out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom 1st. He drove home Kameron Dunlap with a double and scored on a wild pitch.
West Columbia erupted for 5 runs in the bottom of the 2nd. With the bases loaded, Simms Owens drew a walk to drive in a run. Joshua Wise followed with a 2-run single, Blake Paylok had an RBI single and Wise scored on a wild pitch to put West Columbia up 7-0.
Florence answered with 7 unanswered runs. In the top of the 3rd, Noah Carter cleared the bases with a grand slam home run to bring Post 1 to within 7-4.
Florence tied the game in the 4th with RBI singles by Mikey Morris and D.J. Pendergrass and Taylor forced in a run after he was hit by a pitch.
RBI singles in succession by Pegues, Turner and Dunlap put West Columbia back on top 10-7 in the bottom of the 4th. Florence answered in the top of the 6th with 2 runs, but the potential tying run Caleb Oakley was thrown out at homeplate.                                                                                               

“That’s one of the worst calls I’ve seen in a situation like that,” Florence coach Derick Urquhart told the Florence Morning News. “How he calls him out on a play that he clearly got in and he’s in, that’s…we’re still trying to figure out how he was in position to make that call. That’s one of the worst calls I’ve seen and I’m going to lose some sleep over that call. That killed our momentum – that ties the game. For that call to happen in that type of a game…for the umpire to miss that one…that was horrible.”
Dunlap added an insurance run with an RBI double in the bottom of the 6th. Pitching for 1st time this season, Williamson completed a perfect final inning to give West Columbia the victory. 
Williamson struck out 5 in 3 2/3 innings of relief for starter Dylan Johnson. 
Game times and matchups for the tournament will be announced on Twitter at @SC_ALB.