Pembroke Post 50 junior Legion team wins division's top seed
Jul. 9—WILMINGTON — The Pembroke Post 50 junior American Legion baseball team may be playing its first season this summer — but they're already at the top of Area III's South Division.
Post 50 clinched the top seed in the division playoffs with a 12-0 win Thursday at Pleasure Island.
The dominant performance was what head coach Tim Carter called "a good team win."
"I think what we did (Thursday) night, we played a lot better than we did when they came to us," Carter said. "I think we had one fielding error, but it didn't cost us anything. Our pitching; Jaythan (Locklear) threw strikes, he threw the baseball across the plate. And then Keithyn (Hunt) comes in in the sixth and finishes it off for us.
"We hit the baseball; we swung the bats. Sam Brewington for us has been clutch; the last three or four games he's come up with some big hits for us, and he got another big hit last night. Riley (Locklear) has just been outstanding this summer."
Pembroke earned a first-round bye in the division playoffs and advance into the division championship series. Post 50 will play against the winner of a three-game series between Pleasure Island and West Brunswick which will take place Saturday through Monday. The division championship series will begin at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Purnell Swett High School; the second game will be Thursday at the opponent, and a third game will be played if necessary on Friday in Pembroke.
The winner of the division championship series will qualify for the state tournament.
Regardless of what happens in the playoffs, Carter says he views this season as a success for the Pembroke Post 50 program.
"What our goals were, we've exceeded those goals by, good gracious, a bunch," Carter said. "We wanted to get Legion baseball back in Robeson County, we did that, and we wanted to be successful, and we've done that. Regardless of what we do from here on out — to me that's icing on the cake, because we've established what we wanted to do."
