Asheville Post 70’s 11-0 win over Greece (N.Y.) wasn’t enough to win tiebreakers to keep season going.
Asheville (N.C.) Post 70 entered the final game of pool play at the 2025 American Legion World Series knowing it had to shutout Greece (N.Y.) Post 468 while scoring 14 or more runs to advance into Monday's semifinals.
Asheville finished just short of accomplishing that tall task in an 11-0 victory that ended its first ALWS appearance.
Asheville, Chesapeake (Va.) Post 280 and Bossier City (La.) Post 202 each finished 2-1 in Stripes Division pool play.
The first tiebreaker in a three-way tie is runs allowed. Chesapeake got the top seed for the division since it yielded 10 runs. With Asheville and Bossier City yielding 11 apiece, the next tiebreaker of runs scored was used.
Bossier City had scored 24 runs and Asheville 22.
Chesapeake opens the semifinals on Monday at 4 p.m. against Stars Division runner-up Portland (Ore.) Post 158 and Stripes Division champion League City (Tex.) Post 554 meets Bossier City at 7 p.m.
Monday's winners meet in the 2025 ALWS title game on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Asheville's win meant a tiebreaker would be needed to determine a semifinalist for the seventh time since the ALWS began using pool play in the event, and fourth time in five seasons.
Two teams have advanced through the tiebreaker and gone on to win the ALWS: Henderson (Nev.) in 2017 and Troy (Ala.) last year.
Asheville, which finished 34-5 overall, had actually scored 14 or more runs in eight games while recording seven shutouts entering Sunday's finale of the 12-game pool play. The last such instance of both had been a 14-0, 5-inning win over Caldwell County (N.C.) to wrap up a three game to none N.C. Area IV semifinal playoff series.
Post 70 scored five runs in the first inning, three in the second, two in third and one in the fourth before being shutout in the fifth.
Micah Simpson (2 hits, 2 RBIs) led Asheville's offense, which had eight hits, drew seven walks and one hit batter and took advantage of four Greece fielding errors. And starter Kolt Nelson (4 innings, 6 strikeouts) and Ayden Sumner (1 inning, 1 strikeout) combined on the two-hit shutout.
- Baseball