Post 109 juniors lose to Lancaster

Lancaster beat the Gaffney American Legion junior team when it really mattered on Friday.

After dropping two of three to Gaffney in the regular season, Lancaster capitalized on a couple of errors to score five runs in the sixth to eliminate Gaffney from the state tournament with a 6-2 victory.

Gaffney ends its inaugural season at 14-6.

Post 109 coach Travis Clary said Lancaster played with more determination on Friday.

"They came out aggressive early," Clary said. "We didn't get our bats going until the fourth. We just couldn't put hits together."

Joey Copeland started and allowed three hits and one run in two innings. Nick Smiley gave up five runs and seven hits in four innings before giving way to Matt Gault, who pitched a scoreless seventh.

Gaffney mustered only six hits. But don't blame Smiley or Jared Mills for the team's offensive woes. Mills was 2 for 4 and Smiley was 2-2, including a 2-run homer in the fourth.

Lancaster jumped on top 1-0 in the first. After Gaffney went ahead 2-1 in the fourth, Lancaster parlayed four hits and two errors into five runs in the sixth.

Gaffney tried to answer in the bottom half of the inning, but couldn't score after loading the bases.

Despite the disappointing ending to the season, Clary said he was pleased with the season.

"I'm proud of the kids," he said. "We didn't know the competition that we would face. The lower state had some pretty good teams. We competed and I was pleased with our effort."

Clary said most of his roster will return next season.