ALWS Game 6: Texas caps a day of walkoff wins with victory over Alabama

Over the past two years, League City (Tex.) Post 554 and Troy (Ala.) Post 70 have staged a pair of nail-biting American Legion World Series matchups at Veterans Field at Keeter Stadium in Shelby, N.C.

And after Friday night’s 3-2 League City victory, their series is even, with the potential for another meeting.

“It was a great battle — for two years in a row,” League City coach Ronnie Oliver said after his team knocked off the defending ALWS champions. “I give them credit and I give our boys credit.”

A year ago, their meeting — a 4-3 Troy victory with all runs scored in the sixth inning —  determined a semifinal playoff berth as Troy advanced and won two more games for its first ALWS title while League City saw its season come to a heartbreaking end.

This year, if both teams can win their final pool play contests, the possibility of another meeting — in Tuesday's championship game — would be a possibility if they each won Monday semifinal games.

For now, League City heads into its off day of the six-day event while Troy will seek to wrap up a Monday semifinal berth if it can win its 7 p.m. Saturday game against Cheyenne (Wyo.) Post 6

After two days of the 2023 ALWS, League City leads the Stars division with a 2-0 record, with Troy and Cheyenne at 1-1 and Ellsworth (Maine) Post 207 at 0-2; Ellsworth meets League City on Sunday at 1 p.m. in the division’s final contest of pool play.

In the Stripes division following a Friday with all four teams having an off day, Brooklawn, N.J., and Florence, S.C., are 1-0 and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Lincoln, Neb., are 0-1.

In Friday’s League City-Troy contest that had a championship game feel to it, League City’s Alec Beversdorf and Troy’s Brady Richardson were locked into a pitcher’s duel that wasn’t decided until League City veteran Kyeler Thompson hit a walkoff two-out RBI single in the bottom of the seventh inning.

“We came out ready and it feels amazing,” said Thompson, one of five returning players for Post 554 from a year ago. “You know, (Braden) Castle executed the bunt and I was fortunate enough to hit in the winning run. And it all starts with Erik (Anchondo) getting on base. So it’s a great feeling for sure.”

Anchondo’s one-out single to left and Castle’s sacrifice bunt gave Thompson a chance to drive in the game-winner. Thompson drove an 0-1 pitch into right center and Anchondo scored easily.

“We ain’t finished yet,” Thompson said. “We’ve got to take it one game at a time. After the off day, we’ve got to come back and play our hardest again.”

Thompson and Ayden Roecker-Allen had two hits apiece to lead League City’s seven-hit offense which scored two runs in the third inning on Jackson Higgins’ RBI double and Brice Smith’s RBI groundout.

For Troy, Matt Snell had a second inning RBI single and Connor Cosby a fourth inning RBI single.

The rest of the game was dominated by the pitchers.

Bevensdorf went 6 1/3 innings with seven strikeouts before being lifted with 103 pitches (two shy of the 105-pitch limit). Reliever Noah Ferraro got the last two outs to receive the victory after Thompson’s heroics.

Richardson was a hard luck loser as he went 6 2/3 innings with seven strikeouts.