Legion baseball tournament update

By Richard Walker

Cleveland County Post 82-155 suffered one of the most heartbreaking defeats in its history on Tuesday morning in the opener of the 2023 N.C. state American Legion baseball tournament at Campbell’s Jim Perry Stadium.

Pitt County Post 39 knocked off Cleveland County 2-1 on a walkoff home run in the bottom of the seventh that also ended a no-hit pitching bid by Post 82-155’s Colby Putnam.

The loss knocks Cleveland County into the loser’s bracket of the 8-team, double-elimination tournament where they’ll play again on Wednesday at 10 a.m. in a loser’s bracket contest.

Post 82-155 scored first in the top of the 4th inning when a throwing error on Tyler Smart’s bunt single allowed Parker Dixon to score.

After a fielding error and passed ball allowed Pitt County to tie the score at 1 in the bottom of the 4th, neither team scored until Mason Hobbs’ home run to lead off the bottom of the 7th.

Putnam struck out 8, walked 1 and yielded only the home run in the loss in which he also led Cleveland County’s 7-hit offense with 3 singles. Aidan Taylor, Parker Dixon, Smart and Hagan Hoyle had hits for a Post 82-155 offense that led nine runners on base.

Full pairings for the N.C. state Legion tournament at Jim Perry Stadium, Campbell University:

(Tuesday, July 25)
Game 1 – Area 1 No. 1 (Pitt County Post 39 – 16-9) vs. Area 4 No. 2 (Cleveland County Post 82-155 – 24-9) – Pitt 2-1
Game 2 – Area 3 No. 2 (High Point Post 87 – 17-4) vs. Area 2 No. 1 (Wilmington Post 10 – 16-2), 1 p.m.
Game 3 – Area 1 No. 3 (Wayne County Post 11 – 30-6) vs. Area 3 No. 1 (Rowan County Post 342 – 37-5), 4:30 p.m.
Game 4 – Host/Area No. 2 (Fuquay-Varina Post 116 – 23-3) vs. Area 4 No. 1 (Cherryville Post 100 – 22-12), 7:30 p.m.

(Wednesday, July 26)
Game 5 – Cleveland County vs. Loser Game 2, 10 a.m.
Game 6 – Loser Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4, 1 p.m.
Game 7 – Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, 4:30 p.m.
Game 8 – Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4, 7:30 p.m.

(Thursday, July 27)
Game 9 – Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 7, 1 p.m.
Game 10 – Winner Game 5 vs. Loser Game 8, 4:30 p.m.
Game 11 – Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8, 7:30 p.m.

(Friday, July 28)
Game 12 – Winner Game 9 vs. Loser Game 11, 4:30 p.m.
Game 13 – Winner Game 10 vs. Winner Game 10, 7:30 p.m.

(Saturday, July 29)
Game 14 – Winner Game 12 vs. Winner Game 13, Noon
Game 15 – if necessary, 3 p.m.