Roanoke Post 3 Wins District 9 American Legion Championship

Roanoke batter Matt Doughty ducks as a pitch sails high and inside Sunday night during game two of the District 9 tournament.
Roanoke batter Matt Doughty ducks as a pitch sails high and inside Sunday night during game two of the District 9 tournament.

It’s been an out of the ordinary season in District 9 American Legion baseball this summer.

First, the regular season district members were reduced to Roanoke, Rocky Mount and Christiansburg after Alleghany, Vinton and Botetourt made the decision not to field teams in the senior division this year. For the record, all of those latter three are hopeful of returning in 2015.

Then, the competition narrowed further when Christiansburg determined it would not have enough players to compete if they should win the district postseason tournament and qualify for play in the state tournament.

That left only Roanoke Post 3 and Rocky Mount Post 6 to battle it out in a best-of-three game playoff series that began Saturday night at Salem’s Kiwanis Field.

A routine series? Not so fast.

Saturday night, Rocky Mount Post 6 rallied from an 11-5 deficit in the late innings for what looked like a 13-11 win, and 1-0 series lead.

Rocky Mount Post 6 slugger Ryan Breuer puts the barrel on the ball Sunday night on his way to a 4-RBI night.
Rocky Mount Post 6 slugger Ryan Breuer puts the barrel on the ball Sunday night on his way to a 4-RBI night.

But, after the game, Roanoke filed a protest that Rocky Mount had used an ineligible player during the contest. After Legion official reviewed the facts, the protest was upheld and Roanoke was declared the winner of game one by forfeit.

Before game two Sunday night, there were differences of opinions on what had happened.

Rocky Mount manager Gary Goad and assistant coach Aaron Haigler felt their squad had been unfairly stripped of the win and gave their side of what had occurred.

“This is sour grapes over getting beat,” Haiger noted without hesitation. “Due to an injury of one of our players, we requested a replacement from our junior team. We made the request to the appropriate official and we expected a response. It had to go to the state officials, but there was no communication back down the line.”

“We were down 11-5 and the kid in question wasn’t even in the game when we rallied,” Goad added.

Haigler noted with an understandable degree of frustration, “This should be about kids playing baseball.”

On Monday, Roanoke Post 3 manager Scott Smith released a statement on the incident.

“Rocky Mount has a strong team and played us tough all season, but they used an ineligible player in our (tournament) game Saturday and when I reported it to the State Chairman, James Grenier, it was an easy decision to award us the forfeit win. It’s very clear in the American Legion rules- only players on the roster can play in tournament games. It seems like a bad deal for them, and I’m sure it wasn’t intentional, but it’s just the rules we all have to follow.”

Grenier’s decision stuck, awarding Roanoke the win by a official forfeit score of 9-0.

Facing elimination Sunday night, Rocky Mount fought hard, but Roanoke Post 3 jumped out to an early lead and held on for the 14-11 win.

The game was a hitter’s delight with Roanoke slapping 20 hits and Rocky Mount collecting 15. Roanoke led 5-0 after three innings and 10-3 after six innings before Rocky Mount made things interesting with eight runs over the final three frames, including 5 in the ninth.

Tanner McCoy (North Cross) and Jake Wright (Patrick Henry) led Roanoke with fours hits each. Three of McCoy’s hits were doubles. Matt Doughty (North Cross) went 3-for-5.

Jake Schuyler (Cave Spring) started on the hill for Post 3 and picked up the win after going 6 innings. Doughty came on in the ninth to quell the Rocky Mount rally by getting the final two outs for the save.

Rocky Mount Post 6 was led by Brice Arrington’s three hits and four RBIs by Ryan Breuer.

Roanoke Post 3 advances to state championship play for the fourth straight year, and will open the 8-team double elimination format against Leesburg Post 68 in Leesburg next Tuesday night at 7 p.m.

– Bill Turner

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