On to the next round: Legion squad wraps up regular season

Published 8:27 am Thursday, July 3, 2025

By Jason O. Boyd

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CHOCOWINITY, N.C. — It’s already been a long season for the Beaufort County Junior American Legion Post 15 squad. Now comes the next phase.

Post 15 wrapped up regular-season play on Monday with a 5-4 loss to the top-seed Roanoke. That put Beaufort County at 11-6 overall, 10-4 in Area 1 play heading into next week’s postseason, which Post 15 will host starting Monday at Chocowinity Middle School. Before that, Post 15 beat Lawrence 9-3 then dropped a wild 19-18 contest.

The final pairings will be sorted out later this week, but Beaufort County is solid to get either the No. 2 or No. 3 seed.

The season has been filled with lots of excitement but also some rainouts, schedule changes and blistering temperatures. Through the ups and downs, manager Bobby Boyd told followers in a text chat Monday night, “It’s a major achievement with the youngest legion team in Area 1. Very proud of these young men, and you should, as well.”

Sunday’s Game 1

Post 15 had its third doubleheader of the season and second at home last Sunday. After a disappointing split with Wilson the weekend before, Beaufort County put on quite a show under the hot sun against Lawrence Post 164.

The first game was a back-and-forth contest that Post 15 eventually pulled away from after it was tied 2-2. A RBI single by Jonah Daniels scored Salil Desai, who earlier singled to left, to give Post 15 a 3-2 lead. A wild pitch later scored Daniels to make it 4-2.

Post 15 pitcher Luke Alligood and a solid defensive performance by his teammates was enough under the sweltering conditions that had the players and coaches consuming lots of water and fruit while taking turns in front of the cooling fan. After Lawrence cut the deficit to 4-3 in the top of the third, Beaufort County pulled away with a four-run third inning.

Andrew Oneil blasted a double to left that drove in two runs before a single by Keegan Mitchell drove in two more for an 8-3 margin. Post 15 got out of a couple of jams down the stretch to preserve the win.

Game 2

There were no official records set or broken but the back half of the doubleheader between Post 15 and Post 164 was a doozie, to say the least.

The two squads combined for 37 runs, 23 hits and 10 errors. Lawrence’s Evan Perry hit the first homer of the season into the football bleachers at Chocowinity Middle School. That gave Lawrence a commanding 10-2 lead.

But that was just the beginning, and Beaufort County wasn’t done. They rallied in the fourth to cut the deficit to 10-7, sending 10 batters to the plate but only getting two hits. Two hit batters and a walk also aided the scoring effort.

Lawrence came right back and doubled up Post 15, leading 14-7 after five innings. Still, there was no quit in Beaufort County sent 12 batters to the plate in the bottom of the sixth, scored six runs on one hit, seven walks and another hit batter. Post 15 players were moving around the diamond like a merry-go round as run after run crossed the plate while Post 164 changed one pitcher after another.

The margin then was 14-13.

Lawrence, which was the home team in this game, answered back with five more runs for a 19-13 lead. Post 15 had one more shot in the top of the seventh and nearly tied it. Three hits and two bases-loaded walks made it 19-17 before Carter Williams’ single drove in the final run to make it 19-18.

A weird fly ball to left led to the second out and prevented Beaufort County from tagging up. The final out came one batter later.

“There were some crazy plays all along the way,” Boyd said. “And we were, does that guy tag up? I don’t know. You know, that’s just baseball.

“That’s what you call never quitting and fighting to the end, and at the end of the day, that’s all you want from a team. Win or lose, I can lose like this. Even in a crazy game, knowing that 14-7, there’s a lot of teams around here would have folded.”

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