The South Carolina American Legion state baseball tournament will be played without any Lexington County representatives this season. Lexington Post 7, West Columbia Post 79 and Chapin Newberry Post 193/24 were all eliminated in their region tournaments, with Lexington being the team closest to making it out of that round.

Chapin Newberry fell in their only two playoff games. Both contests were close as they were defeated by Greer Post 115 4-2 and then by Greenwood Post 120 6-5 to make them the first team eliminated from the Upstate Region. Despite the season ending loss, Vincent Santostefano went 3-5 with a pair of RBI while also striking out five batters on the mound.

West Columbia and Lexington were both placed in the Midlands region. West Columbia’s hot hitting continued into the playoffs as they defeated Anderson Post 14 12-6 in their playoff opener. The win set up a winner’s bracket showdown with League 3 champion Camden Post 17. Lexington started their playoff run with a walk-off loss to Easley Post 52 by a score of 6-5.

Facing elimination, Lexington fought to play another day with a 4-2 win over Anderson. They would then have to face West Columbia in an elimination game after they dropped a close 6-5 loss to Camden.

In the elimination game between two Lexington County teams, West Columbia jumped out to an early 1-0 lead when Josh Raines’ RBI single scored Mason Turner in the bottom of the second inning. Lexington rebounded well in the top of the third and gained their first lead of the game when a throwing error scored Ethan Etheridge and Brunson Price scored on a fielder’s choice from a Marshall Carnahan grounder to short.

Lexington increased their lead in the top of the sixth inning when Wyatt McPherson’s bloop single scored Patrick Evans to give them a 3-1 lead.
Lexington seemingly broke the game open in the top of the seventh when McPherson’s second RBI of the game scored Etheridge, a Jake Torbett single scored Price and a Gavin Creede hit by pitch scored McPherson. In total, Lexington put up three in the inning and took a 6-1 lead into the final frame.
West Columbia made things interesting when Raines led off the inning with a ground ball single on the first pitch he saw. After the next batter got hit by a pitch, Raines moved to second and eventually made his way to third when he stole the base. A wild throw to third then scored Raines to cut into the deficit with no outs.

After Evans struck out a West Columbia batter for the first out of the inning, he walked Brent Stukes and surrendered a bloop single to Peyton Starkey to drive in another West Columbia run and trim the Lexington lead to 6-3.
Corbin Wright knocked in a single to load the bases and a Turner fielder’s choice scored another run for West Columbia. With Lexington’s lead now dwindled to 6-4, the bases were loaded for Blaine Redmond with a chance to help secure the stunning comeback. Redmond ultimately popped up to McPherson at home plate and Lexington avoided the loss and ended West Columbia’s 2023 season.

“We came together and started playing very very well,” West Columbia coach Dargan Lybrand said. “It’s one of those things where we had a great team. They played hard and did good, but we could accomplish more.”

For Lexington head coach Drew Towery, the win was a result of a team that didn’t give up all year despite some struggles during the regular season.

“It’s just resilience, you know? We went out Monday night and played a good Easley team and got walked-off on which means we played competitive baseball but you know, I just told the guys after the game ‘Look, we can still do this whole thing but it’s going to take everybody in the dugout and all the stuff like that,’” Towery said.” “Just like to this point, it’s taken everybody, every arm we’ve had, every stick we’ve had and guys have played different roles and you know, I’m just proud of the kids, honestly, for the resilience.

Unfortunately for Lexington, their season came to an end a day later in the region final as Camden defeated them 13-5.