Chapin/Newberry wins American Legion baseball state title
Chapin/Newbery Post 193/24 defeated Sumter Post 15 4-2 on Friday afternoon at Spirit Communications Park to win the American Legion state championship for the third time in the past six seasons.
Chase Hood drove in the go-ahead run with a single in the bottom of the sixth inning after Sumter had tied it at two in the top half of the inning.
“We wanted it bad,” Hood said. “Everybody was going around saying we wanted that rock. We wanted that ring bad. We’ve come together a lot better and formed a really good brotherhood. We love each other.”
Sumter advances to the Southeastern Regional as well. Georgia didn’t have American Legion baseball this summer, so the South Carolina champion and runner-up was awarded a spot in the tournament to be played in Asheboro, N.C., from Aug. 8-11. The winner of that will advance to the American Legion World Series in Shelby, N.C., from Aug. 16-21.
Chapin/Newberry used a blend of seasoned veterans and newcomers to win the state tournament.
“We have several older college guys that came back and a bunch of underclassmen,” Chapin/Newberry coach David Coats said. “I’ve been really excited the way they’ve been able to perform. We got hot at the right time, coming into the playoffs. I’m so proud of this team. They’re a good bunch.”
Will Kroske started the game-winning rally with an infield single. Robert King followed with a sacrifice bunt that allowed Kroske to advance from first to third. Sumter elected to intentionally walk Ward Hacklin, and it looked like the strategy might work when Jacob Holladay was able to get the next batter to pop out to the catcher for the second out.
But Hood followed by ripping the first pitch he saw into leftfield to score Kroske. Preston Farmer added an RBI single for an insurance run.
“It was a curve ball right down the middle,” Hood said. “They tell us not to hit first-pitch curve balls, but it was just flat, so I decided to take a good hack at it.”
Jeb Fulmer started and did enough to put Chapin/Newberry in position to win. The Mid-Carolina product pitched 5 1/3 innings and allowed two runs on four hits. He struck out one and walked two. Aaron Copeland earned the win by pitching the final 1 2/3 innings without allowing a hit. The hard throwing right-hander, who topped out at 90 mph on the radar gun, struck out two.
“Our pitching in this tournament has been outstanding,” Coats said. “We’ve come out and executed our game plan. We have a good defensive team, and our pitchers know they need to pitch to contact and try to keep the hitters off balance the best they can.”
Coats was especially proud of Fulmer, who he coached at Mid-Carolina.
“It makes me proud as I can be for that kid to go out and win a game like this,” Coats said. “He’s not the winning pitcher on record, Copeland gets that, but at the end of the day, he went out there and did everything we needed him to do to allow us to win a state championship.”
W: Aaron Copeland. L: Jacob Holladay. Hitters: C/N – Ward Hacklin 2B, RBI; Preston Farmer 2-3, RBI.
This story was originally published July 27, 2018 at 7:45 PM.