American Legion baseball has wrapped up in Lexington County after West Columbia dropped its first two games of the double-elimination bracket in the senior playoffs. 

Post 79 lost its first game on the road to league rival Richland before returning home for a game against Sumter. Both of those games came against familiar faces as West Columbia played both in the regular season. 

In their previous three meetings, Richland beat West Columbia two games to one. Post 79 played Sumter twice at the beginning of the season, losing both in low-scoring battles. 

West Columbia defeated Summerville last week in a three-game series to advance out of the first round into the double-elimination bracket. 

The team looked to continue that momentum into the next game, but hit a wall against Richland. Post 79 lost in an 11-1 blowout.

Richland did the majority of its damage in the fourth inning, when the team scored eight runs to expand an already early lead.  West Columbia stood no chance with its only run of the game coming in the second inning. 

Despite the loss, West Columbia was still in contention, but had to navigate through the loser’s bracket. 

Sumter, coming off a loss against Florence, traveled to town and upset Post 79 4-2 in the first elimination game. 

When Sumter needed a hero, BJ Balls answered the call.

The Laurence Manning graduate opened the game with a moon-shot home run over the right field fence. He stepped up again in the fourth and hit a laser for a two-run shot, delivering the first two P-15 homers of the season. 

Carson Todd, Joseph Chapman and Peyton Price took things from there, delivering a strong performance on the bump to pull out the win. 

Balls were spectacular. He led off the game and saw just two pitches before hitting a missile over the fence. After touching home plate, he leapt into an explosive celebration with the entire Sumter dugout, as it took the P-15’s 24 games to finally hit a ball over the fence. 

When he stepped up to the plate again in the fourth, he took the first pitch he saw and turned on it. Balls knew it was out from the second the ball launched off his bat, as he took a second to watch the rocket before shouting in celebration as he rounded the bases, playing a little imaginary catch with first base coach Clayton Goff before reenacting their initial home run celebration at the dugout.

Four runs were more than enough for Carson Todd on the mound. He was excellent for most of the night but ran into trouble on two occasions. 

In the second, he allowed a two-out single before walking three straight batters to allow his first West Columbia run of the night. He buckled down and induced a fly ball to escape the inning without much damage. 

He faced a similar scene in the bottom of the fourth. An error, a walk and a single loaded the bases before Rylan Bullis hit an RBI single to left. But Post 79 left points on the board as Austin Rhodus was held up at third and made it no further, after a shallow fly ball to right wasn’t deep enough and another fly ball ended the inning.

Todd ended up pitching into the sixth before his night ended at 106 pitches. He scattered five hits and four walks while striking out six.

Chapman came in and got two quick outs to close the sixth before turning the ball over to Price in the seventh. The big righty threw his first six pitches for balls but settled in and struck out two batters on his way to a shutout frame. Price punched out Charles Harrelson and let out a scream in celebration as he sealed the win.