Roanoke Post 3 Wins Legion District 9 Title

Roanoke Post 3 won its third straight District 9 Legion Championship with the walk-off win Monday night. Roanoke advances to next week's eight-team state championship in Williamsburg.
Roanoke Post 3 won its third straight District 9 Legion Championship with the walk-off win Monday night. Roanoke advances to next week’s eight-team state championship in Williamsburg.

Things went to the wire Monday night at Kiwanis Field in Salem as Roanoke Post 3 edged Vinton Post 80 6-5 in the District 9 American Legion baseball championship game.

Roanoke hopes the third time will be the charm as the win gives them their third straight district title, advancing them to the eight-team state tournament next week in Wiliamsburg. Vinton’s season came to an end with the loss.

Despite three prior wins this season over Vinton, Roanke clearly found itself in a dogfight Monday night.

Post 3 was holding a 5-4 lead after seven innings before Vinton tied things up with a rally in the top of the eighth.

Dylan Spradlin (Roanoke Valley Christian) got things started for Vinton with a walk and leadoff hitter Paul Williams (Staunton River) followed with a single to right to put runners at first and second.

That ended the night for Roanoke Post 3 starting pitcher Jake Schuyler (Cave Spring), who had pitched a gem to that point, giving up only 8 hits and two earned runs. Roanoke manager Scott Smith summoned reliever Steve Klaiber (Cave Spring/UVa-Wise) to the mound. Vinton scratched out the tieing run when James Love (Staunton River) bounced a high chopper up the middle and beat out the throw to first, scoring Spradlin.

After Klaiber retired Vinton in order in the top of the ninth to keep the score 5-5, Post 3 manufactured the winning run in major-league style.

Griffin Stanley (Cave Spring) led things off and pulled back a bunt before slashing a shot past the charging Vinton third bagger Zachary Whitley (Wm. Fleming). Stanley drew three pickoff attempts to first from Vinton starter Martin Spradlin (Wm. Byrd) before stealing second on the next pitch.

“Speed is a good asset to have,” Scott Smith pointed out afterward. “It’s great to have a guy like Stanley who can run. Everyone knew he was going (to attempt the steal).”

Hayes Nelson (Hidden Valley) followed with a textbook bunt to advance Stanley to third, bringing Vinton manager James Love, Sr. to the mound to set the strategy to go with the percentages. Vinton intentionally walked the next two Roanoke batters to load the bases, bringing pinch-hitter Hayden Smith (Hidden Valley/ Allegheny College) to the batters box. Smith worked the count full before taking ball four for the walk-off RBI winner.

Roanoke was led by by Stanley, Tanner McCoy (North Cross) and Lucas Nowlin (Northside) , each of whom collected two hits for Post 3. Dylan Spradlin and Paul Williams each had three hits for Vinton, while James Love and Joshua Haga (Salem) added two hits for Post 80, which banged out 12 hits on the night.

– Bill Turner

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