Post 74 falls to South Richmond

GLEN ALLEN — After putting up a five-spot on South Richmond Post 137 in the top of the second inning, it looked like Albemarle Post 74 was going through business as usual in its third game of the American Legion state tournament.
However, Richmond showed why it is the defending champion shortly thereafter, scoring nine runs in the bottom of the third. The burst gave starting pitcher and VCU commitment Blake Hauser more than enough run support in a 15-9 victory to earn a spot in the championship game.
“We made a few mistake and we definitely hit the ball when we had to”, said Richmond coach Byron Ballard. “This is the way you hope to go through the tournament.”
Vince Coles led the second-inning surge with a grand slam with two outs to put Albemarle ahead 5-3.
But the lead didn’t last long, with Richmond trimming the deficit to one in the bottom of the second on a Chris Ayers solo shot.
Ayers struck again in Richmond’s big third inning, going deep for a 3-run homer on a belt-high changeup.
“I was looking to stand back and looking for something to drive,” Ayers said. “I knew they weren’t going to pitch me anything good so I just had to be patient up there.”
In the very next atbat Dustin Sollars hit another bomb, and three batters later with a runner on base, Ryan Morrison sent another pitch over the fence.
It took a while for the Albemarle bats to respond, but in the eighth inning, a Danny Morris two-run home run and an RBI single from catcher Adam Utz cut the lead to six. It was the closest that they would get as Richmond held Albemarle scoreless in the ninth.
“We faced a lot of adversity today and we really just didn’t handle it well,” said Albemarle coach Mike Maynard. “It took us two or three innings to get out of that funk of Everybody’s against us.”
Although disappointed with the result, Maynard was pleased to see his team try to rally towards the end of the game when things looked out of reach. He was also content with the 5.1 innings of relief that Eric Utz was able to provide. Utz gave up just one earned run.
“I’m proud of them for responding late,” Maynard said. “Eric did a great job for us, coming in and mixing up speeds.”
Albemarle got a scare in the bottom of the eighth inning when Utz was struck in the neck with a pitch that popped up from the dirt. It’s the third time this season that Utz has been hit in that spot. The Henrico rescue squad was called to check out the injury, but Utz wound up being cleared.
Albemarle will face the winner of Norfolk Post 60 and Front Royal Post 53 today at 10 a.m. in an elimination game at RF&P Park. The winner of that game will play Richmond at 5 p.m. in a must-win situation.
As the only unbeaten team left in the double elimination tournament, Richmond must be defeated twice.
Ballard doesn’t think he’s seen the last of Albemarle.
“Albemarle is not done by any means,” said Ballard. “They like the fastball and if you pitch yourself into positions to have to throw the fastball to them, guess what? They’re going to hit it hard. [Coles], he hit everything we threw at him.”
For the Albemarle players, facing elimination has the team thinking very differently.
“If we’re able to maintain our composure, I really think that we could battle with [Richmond],” Coles said. “I believe this game will give us a new attitude.”
Coles is hitting .529 for the tournament and has two home runs and seven RBI in the process.
Teammate Kevin White extended his home run streak to three straight games with a solo blast in the top of the second and has five home runs in the tournament.