By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
SHELBY, N.C. – After all recently graduated NCHS shortstop Brock Laird and his Bossier Phillies teammates did to earn a spot in this evening’s American Legion Baseball World Series semifinals televised nationally on ESPNU, Sunday night they had to sit and watch to see if it paid off.
It took two agonizing hours of a one-sided game to resolve the question favorably for Laird and pals.
Bossier played a pair of one-run games in its three Stripes Division contests beginning Friday night, losing 7-6 in the opener to Asheville (N.C.), and edging previously unbeaten Chesapeake (Va.) 4-3 Sunday morning, In between, the Phillies enjoyed a 14-1 romp Saturday past an outmanned Greece (N.Y.) club that due to the World Series tiebreaking procedures, had the decisive role determining whether Bossier or Asheville would join Chesapeake in today’s semifinals.
Greece lost Sunday night to Asheville by “only” 11-0, and because the Phillies outscored Asheville by an aggregate 24-22 in the weekend’s three games, the break went Bossier’s way.
The Phillies play this evening at 6 CDT in the Series semis against League City (Texas), with Chesapeake taking on Portland (Ore.) in the other semifinal at 3 today. The winners meet for the World Series crown Tuesday evening at 6. All four semifinalists were 2-1 in pool play. League City rallied for a 10-inning win Sunday afternoon over Rockport (Ind.) to earn its place.
“It doesn’t matter how it happens, just that it happens. It’s all you want, an opportunity to get there,” said Bossier coach Dane Peavy. “Our guys really persevered, did a really good job. We had to get the win (over Chesapeake), and we did, and then it was up to somebody else. These were three pretty even teams and two get to keep playing.”
Pitching depth is pivotal in tournament play. Peavy will hand the ball to incoming Northwestern State freshman Kade Bryant this evening. His last outing was a six-hitter in a vital 10-1 victory over a potent Columbia (Tenn.) offense last Sunday in the Mid-South Regional. In his previous start in early July, Bryant fired a two-hitter in the state tournament.
“We feel pretty confident he’s going to throw us a good game,” said Peavy, “and we’ll let the chips fall where they may. They’re a good hitting team, and we feel we match up pretty well with them.
“I don’t know where they stand on pitching, but they threw their Number 1 (Sunday). Their second guy is probably going to go. He went 58 pitches Friday. He’s a lefty, so we believe we can battle it out.”
Bossier (26-4) is the first north Louisiana team to reach the World Series, say records dating back to 1950. This is the Phillies’ second straight trip, with 10 players back from last year, and they have an excellent guide with Peavy. The Benton High coach won it all in Shelby with the Arkansas state champs from Texarkana nine years ago in his first visit.
“At this point, there’s nothing that can be said to these guys, nothing we need to present to them. We’re one of the top four teams out of 4,000 American Legion teams across the country. They’re going to be primed and ready to go, trying to be the one left standing Tuesday night,” he said.
“There is no quit in them. We wouldn’t be playing in the World Series semifinals if we didn’t get two runs in the seventh Friday against Asheville. You grind away. You keep competing. Every last one of these guys pull their weight. You can’t ask for much more – they’re doing their jobs, they’re being the best they can be.”
Sunday morning, the Phillies got eight strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings by Brody Bower, who was the winning pitcher in a shutout performance in the state finals. Cole Snell clubbed a no-doubt two-run homer in the third inning, a day after he popped a three-run shot in the fourth inning that canned Greece on the heels of an 11-run third frame.
Bryant, the incoming freshman signee for NSU, scored the decisive run Sunday morning when Phillies second baseman Hudson Brignac, the Demons’ starting second sacker this spring as a true freshman, reached on an error in the fifth inning.
Laird, who is batting .308 with two home runs and 24 RBI for the Phillies as the starting shortstop all season, has driven in a run in each of their two wins in Shelby as his mother Renee and big sister Brianna watch from the stands and his dad, NCHS football coach Brad Laird, has kept track back home on ESPN+ and live stats.
As for enduring Sunday night spectator duty at Veterans Field waiting to see if Asheville could crunch Greece by 14-0 or worse, without giving up a run, the Phillies were twisted into knots.
“It was pretty gut wrenching. You feel pretty helpless,” said Peavy. “I bet I have at least 12-13,000 steps on the day because I spent half the game just walking around, changing spots, trying to shake things up. Baseball superstition. You gotta give it to Asheville, they tried to do anything they could to make it happen but came up a little short. I don’t feel sorry for them – just proud of Bossier. These guys earned this.”
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com