The American Legion baseball season goes by in a flash. Just a little over a month ago Byron Cox Post 72 began it’s summer slate. Now 28 games later they’re in the home stretch as Post 72 will get ready to host the Regional Tournament beginning on Friday at North Montgomery. The four-team double elimination tournament will feature Danville Post 118, Terre Haute Wayne Newton Post 346, and Madison Post 9 along with Post 72.
Post 72 comes into the tournament with a record of 19-9 on the summer. Friday they’ll play in the first game of the evening against Terre Haute at 5 pm followed by Danville vs Madison. Post 72 already holds a 19-5 win over Terre Haute back on June 13 and also multiple victories over Danville. They haven’t faced Madison yet this summer.
“We’ve played some real good teams the last couple of weekends and have played well for the most part,” Post 72 coach Kyle Proctor said. “Over in Lancaster we took second place and hit the ball very well. It’s going to be fun to get to play in front of our home crowd. The key to this Regional is winning game one. I’m not putting a ton of weight into that regular season game, but at the same time we scored 19 runs. We know what Danville has too and we’ve seen Madison play a few times and they’re fundamentally sound and can hit the ball well.”
What’s been a big factor into Post 72’s success this summer has been their depth, especially in the pitching rotation. Offensively as a team Post 72 boasts a very impressive .321 batting average and scored 8.4 runs per game. They’re led by former Greencastle Tiger Cub and current Olney Central College’s Keifer Wilson. Wilson is batting right at .500 this summer and has 42 hits, three home runs and 35 RBI’s. Wilson is joined by strong hitters in Frankfort’s Quentcy Perry (.426) who joined the team a little over halfway through the summer, North Montgomery’s Dylan Braun (.397), Jarrod Kirsch (.345) and Roman Utterback (.333) , and Crawfordsville’s Bryce Dowell (.352) and AJ Hall (.300).
Post 72 also added another strong bat to it’s already loaded arsenal. Lebanon’s Cannon Morton played his first game with the team this past weekend.
Pitching wise Post 72 boasts the trio of Kirsch, Wilson, and Frankfort’s Jose Lopez as their top three arms. Oscar Lopez, Dowell, and Utterback also give them the much needed depth as well. Dowell is coming off a no-hitter in Post 72’s 3-0 win on Saturday where he struck out 11.
“I think with the amount of pitching that we have and the fact that we’re a lot older this year that we should come in as the favorites,” Proctor said. “My message to the guys is that we haven’t won anything. Terre Haute is the defending Regional Champions and the state runners-up from last year. We’re going to have to play really well to beat them maybe twice.”
The schedule for the Regional is as follows. Game 1 between Post 72 and Terre Haute will be at 5 pm on Friday followed by Danville vs Madisonville. Saturday beginning at noon, the two winners from Friday will play at noon for a spot in the championship game on Sunday. The two losers from Friday will then play in an elimination game Saturday at 3:30. The winner from that game will play the loser of the noon game that night at 7 pm. Sunday the championship game is scheduled for a 1 pm start and if necessary (losers bracket winner wins) a second game winner take all game will be played 30 minutes afterwards.
If Post 72 is able to come out on top in the Regional, they’ll advance to the eight-team State Tournament which will take place July 21-25 in Kokomo. Post 72 two years ago made it all the way to final game of the State Tournament before falling in championship game. Proctor noted what it would mean for his team to get back to the State Finals.
“It would help out our program tremendously knowing that two out of the last three years we’ve made the state finals,” he said. “It’d help from a recruiting front with getting players for next year. I do think that this team is made up a lot like our team from two years ago. This year we scouted heavily on bringing in seniors or freshman in college. Having our returning kids from last year and combining them with the seniority that we have has helped a ton. Winning the Regional is the goal because getting to play in the state finals is an experience that I hope these kids will get. I know it’ll last with them for a long time.”
