The Fort Mill Post 43 Juniors punched their ticket to the 2025 American Legion Juniors State Championship with a win over North Augusta Post 71.
Fort Mill won 8-2 in the semifinals of the five-day tournament being held at Fort Mill High School and will play Lexington Post 7 needing to win one of possible two games.
The win improved Post 43 to 16-5 on the season as game one of the state finals at Fort Mill High will start at 1 p.m. If Fort Mill were to lose, they will play a second game at 4 p.m.
Despite North Augusta being the higher seed, Fort Mill was the home team for the first time in the tournament. The game started out as slow as it quickly turned into a pitcher’s duel with Fort Mill starter Carter Czapla throwing the first three innings and allowing just one hit and walking one.
In the top of the fourth, North Augusta scored two runs on two walks and a single to take a 2-0 lead. Fort Mill came back in the bottom of the inning to get on the board. Grey Kneidel and Jackson Carroll singled to get things started and a ground out by Eli Cheske scored Kneidel.
Post 43 tied the game in the fifth as Eli Wilson singled and Brayden Grogan drove him in on a sacrifice fly. Then Fort Mill used a six run sixth inning to pull away for the win after tying the game in the fifth inning.
In the sixth inning, Carroll doubled, followed by a double from Cheske to give Post 43 the lead at 3-2. James Carlin singled and Michael Caropreso singled driving in both Cheske and Carlin. Wilson doubled to score Caropreso, before a single from Cooper Diehl and a double by Grogan to score Wilson. Connor Fowler hit a double scoring Grogan to end the scoring for Post 43.
Besides Czapla, the only other hit Fort Mill gave up was one from Fox Thorpe, who pitched an inning in the fourth allowing two runs on one hit, while walking two. Jack Provenzano finished the game going three innings without allowing a hit, while walking one and striking out two.
At the plate, Grogan, Carroll, and Wilson all had two hits, while Grogan and Cheske each had two RBIs.
July 22 Roundup
The Fort Mill Post 43 Seniors fell 8-3 in game two of their best-of three series to Easley Post 52 falling out of the playoffs. Easley used the fourth inning to score all eight of their runs, after trailing Post 43 2-0. Simon Fernandez went 2-3 with two RBIs, and both Alex Smith and Michael Rogers went 1-3 in the loss. Fort Mill finished the season at 10-11 overall.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
