COLUMBIA - The Sumter P-15's are the last undefeated team in the American Legion baseball state tournament, but they made their fans' hearts skip a few beats before securing that distinction.
Sumter took a 9-4 lead into the top of the ninth inning against West Columbia on Sunday. Post 79 scored three runs and left the bases loaded on a deep fly out to left field as the P-15's held on for a 9-7 victory at the Dreher High School Baseball Field next to Memorial Stadium.
"We knew we were going to have to score runs against this team," said Sumter head coach Wallie Jones, whose team picked up its 30th victory in 32 games. "They are a team that comes back, comes back, comes back. We got what we needed though. All's well that ends well."
The victory means the P-15's will be in the championship round regardless of what it does today in its game against Rock Hill scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at Capital City Stadium. If Sumter beats Rock Hill, the winner of the 3 p.m. game between West Columbia and Murrells Inlet will have to beat Sumter twice on Tuesday. If Rock Hill were to beat Sumter, Rock Hill would play the West Columbia-Murrells Inlet winner at 11 a.m. at Capital City Stadium on Tuesday with Sumter waiting for the winner of that game for an approximate starting time of 3 p.m. at the Dreher field.
Rock Hill eliminated Richland with a 10-6 victory on Sunday while Murrells Inlet eliminated Gaffney with a 9-1 victory.
The ninth started for West Columbia, which fell to 18-8, with Wesley Camp drawing a leadoff walk from pitcher Andrew Reardon, who had pitched a perfect eighth inning in relief of Patrick Gordon. Lucas Knight lined out to second baseman Cam Martin, who threw the ball away trying to double off Camp, who moved to second. Matt Tanner singled home Camp to make it 9-5 before Reardon got Todd Joyner to ground out for the second out.
However, the left-handed Reardon gave up a two-run home run to Corey Holmes to make it 9-7. Jones decided to bring in Bruce Caldwell, who was pitching for the second straight night after not pitching for over a month due to a tender arm. Stuart Pound greeted him with a double and Caldwell walked Jonathan Betancourt and Zach Hawley to load the bases for Josh Sealey.
After a couple of minutes delay where West Columbia head coach Legree Oswald argued whether Jones had made a visit to the mound to give Caldwell a resin bag, Sealey sent a shot to left field that Blake Graham hauled in 10 feet shy of the fence, which is 305 down the left field line, to preserve the victory and give Caldwell the save.
Gordon picked up the victory for the P-15's. The lanky right-hander worked seven innings, scattering nine hits while striking out four and walking two. He allowed just three earned runs.
"Patrick really battled out there for us tonight," Jones said. "He didn't have his best stuff, but he kept us in the game. He gave us a gutsy performance."
Gordon came out to pitch the eighth inning, but had to leave when he started having leg cramps.
"We were ready to go at least one more inning with him," Jones said. "We thought he could go about 135 pitches and he had thrown 109. He obviously couldn't pitch with the cramps."
Even though Sumter committed three errors, it did make several good defensive plays behind Gordon. The keystone combination of Martin and Caldwell at shortstop rolled two double plays with two runners on.
"Bruce and Cam have done a really good job together," Jones said. "They work well together in the middle. Cam has been just great on defense."
While the P-15's had just nine hits offensively, they matched that with five sacrifice flies and four sacrifice bunts.
"We were able to get them in scoring position, and we were able to get them in," Jones said. "That's what you want to do."
West Columbia jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the second. Pound and Betancourt opened the inning with singles. Pound reached third when Zach Hawley hit into a double play. However, Sealey blooped a single into short center to score Pound and make it 1-0.
The P-15's got the run back in the bottom of the inning. Michael Blackmon led off with a single off of West Columbia starter Dylan Park, stole second and came around on a pair of ground outs.
West Columbia made it 3-1 in the third. Knight hit a grounder to Caldwell, who dropped the ball while pulling it out of his glove. In his haste, Caldwell made a bad throw to first, allowing Knight to reach second. Tanner followed with an RBI single to make it 2-1.
After an out and a walk, Pound singled to drive in Tanner and make it 3-1. Gordon hit a batter to load the bases, but he got out of the jam without further damage.
Sumter got a run back in the bottom of the inning, but missed out on a golden opportunity. Park walked the bases loaded with one out with Caldwell, the No. 3 hitter who leads the team with 12 home runs, coming up. Caldwell swung at the first pitch and sent it to the deepest part of the small park, the 337 sign in center. However, Camp, the centerfielder, tracked it down for a sacrifice fly, scoring Tyler A. Smith to make it 3-2.
Blackmon flew out for the final out.
The P-15's looked as though that might miss another scoring opportunity in the fourth. Gordon led off with a double before Park retired the next two batters, making Sumter 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position. The left-handed swinging Tyler A. Smith remedied that with a single to right, scoring Gordon to make it 3-3.
The righty-swinging J. Tyler Smith followed with a single to move his namesake to third and Graham ripped a double to the left-center gap to drive in both runs and make it 5-3.
Post 79 got a run back in the fifth. After two were out, Pound drew a walk and scored on a single by Hawley.
Sumter got a couple of more runs in the sixth. Jeremy Buckner drew a walk to start the inning. Jones signaled for Tyler A. Smith to bunt, but he couldn't get two attempts down. After taking a ball while showing bunt, Smith was swinging away on the next one and sent it to the base of the centerfield fence for a double.
"I decided to take it (the bunt) off he took the one for a ball," Jones said. "He couldn't get the other two down, so I thought I should let him swing away. I thought he would get a fastball, and he did, and he was able to drive it."
"I was surprised he took the bunt off," Smith said of Jones, who is known for making his players bunt with two strikes. "I figured I would get a good pitch to hit , and I'm glad I was able to do something with it."
J. Tyler Smith moved both runners up with a sacrifice fly and Graham followed with another sacrifice fly to make it 7-4.
The P-15's went the sacrifice fly route for their eighth run in the seventh. Blackmon was hit by reliever Jordan Baker to start the inning. Gordon put down a sacrifice bunt and Sealey, the third baseman, threw it away to put runners on second and third. Buckner hit a sacrifice fly with one out to score Blackmon.
Sumter got its final run via a sacrifice fly as well in the eighth. J. Tyler Smith drew a leadoff walk and eventually scored on another Caldwell fly ball to make it 9-4.
Jones was pleased with the output of the bottom half of his lineup. Tyler A. Smith was 2-for-3 with three runs scored and one run batted in while J. Tyler Smith was 1-for-1 with two runs, an RBI, a sacrifice bunt and a sacrifice fly.
"We just got a big night from the bottom of our order," Jones said. "T. Left and T. Right both had big performances for us."
Graham also had two hits.
Post 79 finished with 12 hits. Pound was 3-for-4 with two runs while Knight, Tanner and Betancourt each had two hits.
The left-handed Smith is expected to start on the mound for Sumter today.
