It was a reminder of how evenly matched two teams with strikingly different records can be, but ultimately, served notice to just how quickly the American Legion baseball playoffs can end.
After being tied 11-11 through 7 1/2 innings in Wednesday’s opener versus Area IV East Division No. 1 seed Huntersville Post 321, the eighth-seeded boys from Burke led early in both Game 2 Thursday at home and Game 3 Friday on the road but fell short both nights, ending the 2011 season via a 3-0 first-round sweep.
After a pair of offensive battles the first two contests, including Thursday’s narrow 8-7 loss, Friday turned out to be a pitcher’s duel won by Post 321, 5-2, despite a strong start from East Burke High product Donnie Hughes.
Hughes tossed 7 1/3 innings for Burke County Post 21 (7-13), only surrendering one earned run. Four unearned runs cost Burke the win.
“(It was) the best mound performance we have got this season against a very strong hitting team,” Post 21 coach Ron Swink said.
Post 21 led 2-0 after an inning, as Hughes worked a one-out walk and moved to third on Tre Young's double. After Brent Rowe walked to load the bases, Huntersville threw the ball away trying to turn a double play on Justin O’Dear, scoring Hughes and Young.
Huntersville (22-1) answered with single runs in the first and fourth innings to tie the game at 2-all, then picked up an insurance run in the sixth and two more in the seventh for the final tally.
Thursday’s contest at Shuey Field marked the second time in as many nights Huntersville went ahead for good on its final at-bat. The visitors led only 2-0 after half an inning and 8-7 at the end. In between, it was all Burke.
Post 21 tied the game in the bottom of the first with No. 1 and 2 batters Tyler Hopkins doubling and Hughes singling. Hopkins scored on a Young single, and Hughes crossed the plate on an O’Dear sac fly. A two-out Young homer to center field – his 10th through 19 games this summer – was the big hit in the following frame, lifting Post 21 to a 5-2 edge which turned out to be its largest lead of the series.
After Huntersville made it 5-4 in the top of the fourth, Hopkins scored after reaching with his third hit of the game, driven in by Hughes’ second RBI of the contest.
A Post 321 two-run double knotted the scoreboard at 6 apiece in the fifth, but Burke retook the lead 7-6 in the sixth when Cameron Moore walked and scored from second base on an attempted pickoff by the Huntersville catcher. However, a line-drive homer to left-center in the eighth followed by a double to deep left and a sharp single to center in the ninth ended the summer for Post 21.
Mason Webb represented the potential tying run in the bottom of the ninth but was left on third base, Post 21’s seventh runner stranded over the final four innings.
“I thought we played a solid game,” Swink said. “We did make two defensive blunders that led to a couple of runs. They made the plays and got the run across in the ninth inning, and we were left with a well-played loss.”
Hopkins recorded four of his team’s 11 hits and three of the seven runs in the loss.
O’Dear started and went five innings, while Hopkins and Logan Cook were each solid in two innings of work.
Huntersville will now play fourth-seeded Hickory Post 48 in the Area IV quarterfinals.
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