Aiken County Post 26/153 baseball team secures postseason spot

The Aiken County Post 26/153 baseball team knew the objective coming into this week with two games left on the schedule.

Win, and you're into the postseason. Lose, and North Augusta Post 71 would get the No. 2 seed and playoff spot instead.

Now, those two are on a collision course once again. A South Carolina American Legion Baseball committee decided to give the Junior AA league a four-team playoff, and Aiken County and North Augusta were on line to face one another regardless of Tuesday's result for Aiken County at Post 79 Eagles AA.

Aiken County did take care of the first half of the deal by breezing past Post 7 Irmo AA in a 14-2 win on Monday, and another win Tuesday night would give Aiken County the No. 2 seed it was eyeing.

That would mean a home playoff game July 8 against North Augusta. A loss Tuesday would keep the same matchup, with the home venue instead being Riverview Park in North Augusta.

Aiken County hit .536 as a team and pounded out 15 hits in Monday's win, with Brayden Johnson and Caleb Arthur leading the way with three apiece. Kingston Sweetnam, Caleb Viar, Dale Pearson and Troy Stancel each had two hits, and Johnson, Pearson and Jake Bryan each drove in two runs.

Aiken County also drew seven walks, reached on an error twice and earned a free pass to first base twice more by being hit by pitches, giving the team an on-base percentage of .649 for the game.

That was more than enough support for starting pitcher Macon Williams, who allowed just two runs (one earned) on five hits with five strikeouts in five innings.

The game was tied 2-2 through two innings, and then Aiken County blew it wide open with a two-run third, seven-run fourth and three-run fifth to end things early.

After Tuesday's game is the playoff battle against North Augusta. The two teams split their regular-season meetings, with North Augusta taking a 12-11 walk-off win in the season opener May 30 and Aiken County avenging that with a 5-1 win June 17.