Aiken Baseball Club continues in American Legion playoffs

The summer continues for the Aiken Baseball Club as it navigates the American Legion postseason into July.

After splitting the first two games of the series against Dutch Fork Post 193 on July 8 and 9, Post 26 came through victorious in the deciding third game, 10-7, to advance to the next round.

Aiken won game one in dominant fashion, 13-4, before falling in a much closer second game, 6-4, to force the decider. With the season on the line, it was Blake Freeland who came through again with another standout performance.

He finished the night with three RBI in four at-bats, but he wasn’t the only player with a hot bat on July 10. Jeremiah Yarborough and Lincoln Crane also recorded two RBI each, with Yarborough putting the first run on the board in the very first inning.

After taking a 3-0 lead in the first two innings, Dutch Fork bounded back with three runs at the bottom of the second to tie the game up early. They would go on to take a short-lived lead after bringing in two more across home play in the next inning.

Although Aiken made a statement in the fourth with four runs to take over again on the scoreboard, 7-5. Over the next two innings, Post 193 tied the game again at 7-7 before a big 3-run seventh sealed the win for Post 26.

Three different pitchers took the mound for the Aiken Baseball Club, with Timmy Hicks playing a majority of the innings. He allowed 5 runs on 13 hits with three strikeouts before being replaced by Macon Williams, who earned the win after not allowing any runs on three hits to close out the game.

The team improved to 10-5 on the season and will face Lexington Post 7 AAA in the next round at Gilbert High School on July 13 at 7 p.m. Lexington finished at the top of the Midlands West Region with Aiken right behind in second place.

The two teams have faced off three different times during the regular season, with Post 7 winning all three games. Their last meeting was on June 24, where Aiken lost 2-0 in a pitching battle that was much closer than the previous two meetings, which they lost 8-4 and 14-4.