eliminates Post 137
FAYETTEVILLE – Fayetteville Post 4’s Eric Brewington hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning and a three-run homer in the eighth Saturday night in leading his team to an 8-7 victory over visiting Whiteville Post 137 that clinched a sweep in the best-of-five series for the Area 2-West American Legion baseball championship.
It marked the Fayetteville team’s first-ever league championship. The Post 4 team had defeated Whiteville 5-4 in 11 innings in Thursday’s series opener and took a 7-0 shutout victory on Friday.
Whiteville got a strong mound outing from John David White and collected 11 hits. It had the tying run on base in the top of the ninth inning before Post 4 relief pitcher Ryan Cole got the final out.
Coach Brett Harwood’s Whiteville team closed the season with a 14-13 record. Post 137 had defeated regular-season champion Scotland County in four games of their opening-round playoff series.
Whiteville broke a 21-inning scoring drought in the series when Marquis Smith walked, stole second and scored on a single by Ryan McCleney.
Whiteville went ahead in the fifth inning on singles by Charlie Gore, DeMichael Smith, Marquis Smith and Jordan McPherson.
Whiteville upped its lead to 5-2 in the seventh when DeMichael Smith doubled and scored on a Marquis Smith single.
Brewington’s two-run homer in the seventh cut the Post 137 lead to 5-4, but Whiteville came back with a run in the eighth when a bases-loaded walk to DeMichael Smith scored Robbie Penny from third.
In the bottom of the eighth, Fayetteville’s C.J. Gill singled home Landon Lowry and Brewington followed with his three-run shot to make the score 8-6.
Post 137 got a run in the ninth when McCleney walked and scored on a single by Dustin Proctor. Cole came on in relief to strike out the next two batters and claim the win.
White allowed four hits before getting relieved by Britt in the seventh.
DeMichael Smith, Marquis Smith and Penny each had two hits for Whiteville.
“It was a tough series for us,” Harwood said. “Our guys did all they could to stay in it tonight but Fayetteville had another big comeback like they did the first night.”
| Whiteville | 001 | 030 | 111 | - | 7 | 11 | 1 |
| Fayetteville | 010 | 100 | 24x | - | 8 | 7 | 1 |
White, Britt (7) and Proctor; Jones, Lee (7), Cole (9) and Maynor