Union's Seth Osborne, left, tries to tag Gaffney's Bradley Norman on Saturday during Game 1 of a doubleheader in Union.
MICHAEL JUSTUS/michael.justus@shj.com
Published: Saturday, July 6, 2013 at 11:18 p.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, July 6, 2013 at 11:18 p.m.
UNION ? It's down to the finale of the American Legion baseball regular season, a game pushed back, back, back to the eve of the state playoffs, and still, nobody from League Six is eliminated.
Union and Gaffney split a make-up doubleheader Saturday at the Timken Sports Complex and Mother Nature won again in the end.
Union kept its postseason hopes alive in the first game, rallying with three runs in its last at-bat for a 6-5 victory. Gaffney won, 7-1, in the second game that was stopped twice because of rain, once for nearly two hours, and ultimately declared finished in a soggy bottom of the sixth.
Either team could have wrapped up third place with a sweep. Instead, the playoff picture remained as clear as the muddy infield.
Greer (6-9) can take care of that at 2 p.m. Sunday with a win at Union (5-10). But if Union wins, that creates a three-way tie with Gaffney (6-10) for third place behind Inman (12-2) and Spartanburg (8-6).
In that scenario, six weeks of playing baseball will come down to a draw out of a cap for third place, with the remaining two teams facing off Monday ? perhaps even Sunday night ? for the fourth and final playoff spot.
The playoffs, for most, are set to begin Monday. That's when Inman and Spartanburg will have home games in best-of-five series. The others are allowed a day off between the regular season and postseason but must start by Wednesday. Third place opens at Greenville (Wade Hampton) and fourth at League Seven champion Greenwood.
Gaffney had a six-run lead in the second game when it was interrupted in the top of the fifth by a downpour that left the infield a quick mess. After much debate, including the home-team option of starting the game from the beginning on Sunday, repairs were made and they resumed after a delay of 1:51.
That lasted 21 minutes. Umpires again paused the game because of rain, this time an official contest because it was the bottom of the sixth. Union head coach Tommy Ford argued the stoppage and won, however, with the tarps taken off and play resuming in difficult conditions at best.
?My feeling was, when it was raining the first time, we should have called the ball game and started again Sunday,? Ford said. ?? But we waited two hours and cleaned up the field and started playing. When they pulled us after one inning, I didn't like that. I thought we should play seven innings.?
But then after two ground balls on which the infielders could barely stay on their feet let alone make defensive plays, the game was stopped for good.
?It's unfortunate. You can't control the weather,? Gaffney head coach Derek Byars said. ?You play until they tell you to stop and that's what we did.?
Union, on playoff life support, scored three in the bottom of the sixth inning to take the lead in the opener. Rhett Nelson and Seth Osborne opened with singles, Josh Gass bunted them over, Bryson Greene knocked one home on a ground ball and Juawan Rice on an infield single. David Burress, who went 4-for-4, ripped a triple into the right-field corner for the go-ahead run.
Post 22 pitcher Seth Osborne finished his extended complete game in the top of the seventh. He allowed only one earned run among the five and that was because of a first-inning grounder that could have been back-handed by the first baseman but skipped into right.
In the second game, Will Byars of Gaffney went 3-for-3, while teammates Matthew Overton, Josh Serino and Bradley Norman all went 3-for-4. Jimmy Yelton also had a pair of hits.
That was plenty of offensive support for Gaffney starting pitcher Parker Babcock, who went five-plus innings and allowed only one run on six hits. One of those was on the final play, when a ball rolled past him toward second base. He chased it and was unable to stop, sliding through the mud.
?That was really tough out there,? Babcock said. ?I didn't feel like we should be out there playing, but I'm glad they finally called it and we got the win.?
Source: http://www.goupstate.com/article/20130706/articles/130709777
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