The final four teams will face off Monday night on ESPNU to decide who will play for the championship.
The field is set for Monday’s semifinal games in the 96th American Legion World Series after pool play in the two divisions — Stars and Stripes — ended Sunday.
League City (Texas) Post 554 won the Stars division, with Cheyenne (Wyo.) Post 6 finishing as runner-up. They’ll face Stripes division winner Lincoln (Neb.) Post 3 and Stripes runner-up Brooklawn (N.J.) Post 72 tonight on ESPNU, with each division winner facing the other division’s runner-up.
Here’s a look at the semifinal matchups taking place at Veterans Field at Keeter Stadium in Shelby, N.C.:
Game 13: Lincoln (Neb.) Post 3 vs. Cheyenne (Wyo.) Post 6, 4 p.m.
Lincoln opened the 2023 ALWS with a 3-0 loss to Florence (S.C.) Post 1 in a game that started Thursday night and ended past midnight due to rain delays impacting the opening day schedule.
Florence scored its third run of that game in the sixth inning. That’s the last run Lincoln has allowed after posting 3-0 and 9-0 wins over Brooklawn (N.J.) Post 72 and Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Post 671 to round out pool play.
Those shutouts allowed Post 3 to win the Stripes division on a three-way tiebreaker over Brooklawn and Florence.
After being no-hit in their opener against League City (Texas) Post 554, Cheyenne won their last two games in pool play to advance to the semifinals. That included a 3-2 win over defending champion Troy (Ala.) Post 70 on Saturday night in which Post 6 scored all three runs in the top of the seventh inning.
Cheyenne is the first team ever from Wyoming to reach the ALWS. The last team to win the ALWS while being their state’s first representative ever in the series was Yakima (Wash.) Post 36, in 1953.
Game 14: League City (Texas) Post 554 vs. Brooklawn (N.J.) Post 72, 7 p.m.
League City clinched the Stars Division title with Friday night’s 3-2 walkoff win over Troy (Ala.) Post 70. It was Post 554’s second victory in the first two days of the tournament, following Thursday’s 4-0 win over Cheyenne (Wyo.) Post 6.
Jacob Cyr threw the third no-hitter in ALWS history, and first since 1976, in the win over Cheyenne. Kyeler Thompson’s two-out RBI single in the bottom of the seventh inning was the game-winning hit against Troy on Friday night. Those two victories rendered League City’s 4-2 loss to Ellsworth (Maine) Post 207 on Sunday a moot point.
No program has been to the ALWS more times than Brooklawn, which is in its 17th ALWS and is a final four team for the 13th time. But this year was the program’s first trip to the ALWS since 2015.
Post 72 sandwiched convincing victories over Cedar Rapids (9-2) and Florence (10-4) around a 3-0 loss to Lincoln. They scored more runs than any other team in pool play and had the best run differential at +10.
Final pool play standings:
Stars Division
1. League City (Texas) Post 554: 2-1 record; 9 runs scored, 6 runs allowed.
2. Cheyenne (Wyo.) Post 6: 2-1 record; 5 runs scored, 7 runs allowed.
3. Troy (Ala.) Post 70: 1-2 record; 17 runs scored, 9 runs allowed.
4. Ellsworth (Maine) Post 207: 1-2 record; 8 runs scored, 17 runs allowed.
Stripes Division
1. Lincoln (Neb.) Post 3: 2-1 record; 12 runs scored, 3 runs allowed.
2. Brooklawn (N.J.) Post 72; 2-1 record; 19 runs scored, 9 runs allowed.
3. Florence (S.C.) Post 1: 2-1 record; 12 runs scored, 14 runs allowed.
4. Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Post 671: 0-3 record; 6 runs scored, 23 runs allowed.
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