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Post 45 team gathers after Game 3 loss at Rowan County July2023

Post 45 falls in decisive Game 5 in series vs. Rowan County

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Members of Randolph County Post 45 gather after a loss in the Area 3 semifinal series in Salisbury. (PJ Ward-Brown/Randolph Record)

SALISBURY – Randolph County Post 45 will have a gap in its schedule before resuming play next month in American Legion baseball.

Post 45 wasn’t able to reach the Area 3 championship series based on Monday night’s 5-0 loss to Rowan County Post 342 in Game 5 of the best-of-5 semifinal series.

Rowan County won Games 1 and 3, so it won each of its home games at Newman Park on the Catawba College campus.

Randolph County (23-6) will have more games this season after a layoff of more than two weeks. Post 45, as the host team, has an automatic spot in the Southeast Regional that runs from Aug. 2-6 at McCrary Park in Asheboro.

Rowan County (35-5) plays High Point-Thomasville Post 87 (17-3) in Thursday night’s winner-take-all Area 3 final. Both teams advance to next week’s state tournament in Buies Creek. Post 87 swept Kannapolis Post 115 in the other semifinal series.

Rowan County goes for a repeat because last year it topped Randolph County in the Area 3 title game.

Randolph County was limited to two hits in Monday night’s game. Those were by Grat Dalton and Hunter Atkins.

Samuel Asbill was the losing pitcher in the decisive game. Rowan County, aided by a pair of errors, plated five runs in the first inning. Atkins and Tanner Marsh combined for five shutout innings in relief for Post 45.

The first four games of the Area 3 semifinal series were defined by lopsided scores.

Randolph County Post 45 catcher Grat Dalton makes a tag on Rowan County’s Lucas Graham during Game 3 of the Area 3 semifinal series. (PJ Ward-Brown/Randolph Record)

The series began last Thursday in Salisbury, where the game was suspended with Rowan County leading 6-1 and completed the next day in Asheboro with Post 342 winning 8-2.

Later Friday, Post 45 got even with an 11-0 result that included two home runs and six runs batted in by Atkins in a 10-run six-inning. His grand slam ended the game via the mercy rule. Meanwhile, pitcher Drake Purvis threw a no-hitter with six strikeouts and two walks. The game’s first run didn’t come until Carter Brown’s solo homer with two outs in the fifth.

Rowan County responded Saturday night in Salisbury, scoring five first-inning runs off Austin Lemons on the way to a 10-0, five-inning rout.

Randolph County had answers Sunday afternoon at McCrary Park by overcoming a two-run deficit. Post 45 pulled within 2-1 in the third inning before another 10-run sixth.

Marsh’s grand slam followed by Atkins’ homer put Post 45 in control. Brown drove in two runs. Robert Garner pitched a complete game with five strikeouts.

Post 45 Samuel Asbill at Chatham County June2023

Post 45 learns hard lessons as winning streak ends

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Samuel Asbill of Randolph County Post 45 throws a pitch during a victory at Chatham County. (PJ Ward-Brown/Randolph Record)

ASHEBORO – A dose of reality during the past week might not be as bad as it looked for Randolph County Post 45.

The American Legion baseball team had breezed through much of its schedule for the first month of the season. Then in a pair of Area 3 North Division games against High Point-Thomasville Post 87, things didn’t go its way.

“Ego got too high,” catcher Grat Dalton said. “We beat everybody. We thought less of this team and should have played a lot better.”

Post 87 made it a two-game sweep by winning 6-3 on Friday night at McCrary Park.

“Two pretty good ball games and they played better than we did,” Randolph County manager Ronnie Pugh said.

The first of those was Post 87’s 8-5 victory Tuesday night. Post 45 entered the stretch on a 13-game winning streak.

It’s far from a crisis for Randolph County, which improved to 17-3 with Saturday night’s 10-0 victory at Foothills Post 123.

“We’ve been playing real good so far,” Post 45 shortstop Tanner Marsh said of the season as a whole. “We just struggle hitting sometimes.”

Randolph County had gone more than a month without losing before the matchups with High Point-Thomasville.

“We seem to hit kind of a plateau,” Pugh said. “It will happen, and we’ll work through it. Sometimes you have to work your way through it.”

Pugh said player availability will fluctuate with some players having college coursework commitments. Plus, third baseman Hunter Atkins missed Friday’s game because of illness, Pugh said.

“You always think you’re going to win all of them,” Pugh said. “Sometimes you find some things out about your team and it can pay off later on.”

Dalton pointed to mental mistakes as contributing to the shortcomings vs. Post 87.

“Things have got to pick up,” he said. “Play with more intensity.”

High Point-Thomasville scored two third-inning runs, beginning when Jake Little lofted a misplayed double to deep right field and scored on Yates Sikes’ hit. Tanner Royals’ groundout plated the next run in the inning. Sikes stole home for the third run.

In the bottom of the inning Braylen Hayes’ two-out, RBI double and Tyler Parks’ run-scoring single tied the game. Post 87 went back ahead with three runs in the fourth and Randolph County’s only response came on Hayes’ RBI groundout in the fifth. Starting pitcher Drake Purvis of Post 45 took the loss, giving up five runs in four innings before Drew Harmon finished on the mound.

For Post 87, the week might have marked a turnaround.

“We finally started playing like a team and found a way to finish,” said shortstop Landon Mowery, a Trinity product who had two hits and a walk Friday night.

Tuesday night at Finch Field in Thomasville, Randolph County gave up seven runs in the Post 87’s last three at-bats in an 8-5 loss. The big blow was Tyler Shafer’s three-run homer in the fifth.

Post 45 didn’t get much going, scoring two runs in the third and two in the sixth – all on two-out fielding blunders that resulted in two runs on each play. It was 5-4 going to the bottom of the sixth, when Post 87 tacked on three runs off reliever Robert Garner. Dalton’s RBI single in the seventh accounted for the last run. Starting pitcher Austin Lemons took the loss despite benefitting from three double plays.

Post 45 bounced back Thursday night to defeat Chatham County Post 292 by 7-2 behind Samuel Asbill’s pitching as he worked into the seventh inning in Siler City. Marsh had three hits, including a two-run homer.

And after the second loss of the week, there was a strong showing against Foothills. Josh Meadows smashed a grand slam, Marsh homered and Garner threw six shutout innings. Connor Adams threw in the seventh to complete a one-hitter.

Sunday’s makeup game against Greensboro Post 53 has been cancelled as Post 53 has called off the rest of its season.