Chesapeake Post 280 scores 6 in 1st inning of 9-2 win over Greece Post 468.
Chesapeake (Va.) Post 280’s American Legion Baseball team has become “road warriors” with two players perhaps more than any other.
In its seventh straight win as the “road team” in national American Legion competition, Post 280 rolled to a 9-2 victory over Greece (N.Y.) Post 468 in the second game of Friday's American Legion World Series at Veterans Field at Keeter Stadium in Shelby (N.C.).
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“So we've lost the toss for seven straight games," Chesapeake head coach Larry Bowles said of coin flips that determine the home team in each national Legion Baseball game. “If I win the toss for tomorrow, I may still want to be the visitor with how we’ve been playing.”
Friday’s victory was bittersweet for Chesapeake (24-3) as two of its players, incoming Virginia Military Institute freshmen Thomas Conrad and George Chevalier, were playing their final games.
“They report to VMI tomorrow to be ‘rats,’" Bowles said in reference to the name used for first-year VMI students. "They have to be on the line at 5 in the morning. The head of VMI told them they couldn’t stay here and had to report tomorrow morning.”
Conrad was the designated hitter and had two hits, including a sixth-inning home run, while Chevalier started in right field and had a two-run double to highlight Post 280's six-run first inning rally. Chevalier also closed out the win with two hitless and scoreless innings of relief.
“It meant a lot to the guys in the dugout to send them out on such a good note because those two have been playing with those boys for many years,” Bowles said.
Wes Stubbe (4 hits, home run, 2 RBIs), Ryan Gocio (2 hits, 1 RBI), starter Aiden Parker (3 2/3 innings, 5 strikeouts) and reliever Jack Bonney (1 1/3 innings, 2 strikeouts) were other standouts for Chesapeake. And the back-to-back home runs by Conrad and Stubbe in the sixth inning were the first in an ALWS game since 2007 in Bartlesville (Okla.).
For Bowles, the win also was a welcome change from Post 280's previous visit to Shelby in 2022 when they finished fifth in the eight-team ALWS.
“It’s just a better tone than in ‘22,” said Bowles, whose team lost 5-4 in the opener of that tournament after Midland (Mich.) rallied from a 4-2 deficit with three runs in the top of the seventh. “Back then, we had the lead against Michigan and we blow it in the seventh inning with some mistakes.”
Chesapeake returns to action on Friday at 4 p.m. against Asheville (N.C.) Post 70 while Greece (24-7) faces Bossier City (La.) Post 202 at 10 a.m. in their respective second games of pool play.
Derrick Allen (2 hits), Mason Davey (2 hits) and Tyler Cannon (2-run double) led Greece in its ALWS debut.
- Baseball