League City Post 554 and Portland Post 158 combined for five home runs in League City’s 7-6 win.
Trailing 4-0 after 1 1/2 innings, perennial power League City (Tex.) Post 554 needed a spark.
Veteran Jackson Higgins, the only former American Legion World Series champion in the 2025 ALWS, provided it.
And he did so emphatically with a grand slam that sparked a five-run inning that propelled Post 554 to a 7-6 win over Portland (Ore.) Post 158 on Friday’s opening day of the tournament at Veterans Field at Keeter Stadium in Shelby, N.C.
“That’s typical of this team,” said League City coach Ronnie Oliver, who has guided Post 554 to four straight ALWS appearances. “We may get a couple of runs down but we’ll fight back. We just have to keep our composure and make sure everything goes our way.
“And we’ve got great leadership from veterans like Jackson Higgins.”
Higgins (3 hits, home run, 4 RBIs) led a 13-hit offense that also got big contributions from Caden Schindler (2 hits, home run, 2 RBIs), Asa Sampson (2 hits, home run, 1 RBI) and Ronald Rouse (2 hits).
League City (37-1) also got a strong pitching effort from reliever and winner Evan Sanchez (4 2/3 innings, 8 strikeouts).
“We’ve got a lot of arms,” Oliver said of his deep pitching staff that helped League City win five straight games last week after losing its first game in the Western Regional. “Evan came in and did a fantastic job.”
Portland (44-5) gave Post 554 all it wanted by taking the early 4-0 lead and by closing within one and getting the potential tying run on base in the top of the seventh inning.
Griffin Scott (3 hits, double, home run, 1 RBI), Kainoa Santiago (2 hits), Joe Fagan (2 hits, 1 RBI), Ryden Nakamura (2 hits, 2 RBIs) and Jayden Nakamura (2 hits) led Post 158’s 14-hit offensive attack.
The five home runs hit in the contest set a record for ALWS games played in Shelby and gave the 2025 ALWS more home runs (8) than all that were hit in the 2024 ALWS (7).
“The ball was just flying today,” Oliver said. “Typically, you really have to get a hold of one to go at this park.”
League City will face Lincoln (Neb.) Post 500 at 7 p.m. Saturday while Portland will meet Rockport (Ind.) Post 254 at 1 p.m. Saturday as pool play continues. Rockport beat Portland 6-5 in Friday’s opener.
- Baseball