COLUMBIA – A five run third inning helped the Fort Mill Post 43 Senior team advance to the state semifinals by coming from behind to win 9-3 over Lexington Post 7.
Fort Mill will now face Florence Post 1 in the battle of the top two teams in the state with Fort Mill ending the regular season ranked second and Florence ranked first. The American Legion senior state tournament is being held at Segra Park in Columbia. Fort Mill improved to 18-5 with the win over Lexington.
Post 43 took advantage for four Lexington errors with three of them coming in the third inning where Fort Mill scored the five runs. Lexington jumped out to a 2-0 lead over Post 43 scoring two in the second inning. Brayden Franse got the start for Fort Mill and went just two innings allowing two runs on four hits, while walking two and striking out one.
Franse was replaced with Brayden Kurtz, who finished the game, going five innings and allowing just two hits and one run to get the win. Kurtz also walked five and struck out four.
The bottom of the third was when Post 43’s bats came alive as they scored five runs on two hits. Patrick Matthews led the inning off with a double, Kenan Bowman walked and Gabe Simmons reached on a fielder’s choice. Connor Rasmussen then reached on an error which scored a couple of runs and Chase Dougherty got a walk with the bases loaded adding another run for Fort Mill. Scott Young would reach base on an error as a run scored and Aaron Pendergast would then hit an RBI single to make it 5-2 in Post 43’s favor.
Both teams would add a run in the fourth inning with Post 43 scoring as Harrison Wilson would double in Simmons, who walked earlier in the inning. Fort Mill put the game out of reach in the sixth inning scoring three runs on two hits.
In the sixth, Matthews reached on an error and Bowman would walk for the third time in the game before Simmons would drive in Matthews on a single and a run would score on a Wilson’s fielder’s choice. Dougherty would then double in another run scoring Wilson.
In the other match-ups in the tournament, Camden beat Charleston 3-0 and Florence beat Greer 10-0. Greer has already given Post 43 one loss in the double elimination tournament. Greer will now play Camden Saturday.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
