August 11, 2023

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

By Richard Walker
Baseball

League City Post 554 avenges loss to Troy Post 70 in last year’s ALWS.

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.

 

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