The Diamond enter postseason play tonight with a perfect 11-0 mark. The junior Legion team faces Terry Sanford in the first round of a four-team conference tournament at home in a game that begins at 7 p.m. If the Diamond wins, it will face the winner of the Cape Fear-Jack Britt contest in another 7 p.m. home game Saturday.
Post 72 took the regular-season conference crown with a 10-0 mark, and squared off against non-conference foe Scotland in a tuneup game before tourney time.
"We only had the opportunity to play 11 games when we had 16 scheduled," said Diamond coach Jeff Hewitt Thursday. "The weather knocked out a lot of our games, but we got all our conference games in. We felt like we needed a game under our belts before entering tonight's playoffs."
It was a Josh Haley belt that got the Diamond rolling in handing Scotland only its second loss this season. Trailing 1-0 entering the bottom of the first, Haley smashed a two-run shot to give the Diamond a lead it never relinquished.
Jeremy Evans rebounded from giving up the first-inning run to get the win for Post 72. He went into the seventh inning before allowing a leadoff double. Chais Beloso came on in relief, but hit the first batter he faced and then walked the next.
Andrew MacDonald, coming off a no-hitter against Cape Fear in his last outing, took over in the no-out, bases-loaded situation, giving up just one run.
"He gives up just the one run, gets us out of the inning, game over," Hewitt said. "He is maturing every game. We were very proud of the way he handled the situation. In fact, all of our players are maturing each and every game. This is a young group, but they come to the ballpark expecting to win. They don't want to lose. They keep an even keel, and do whatever it takes to win. It's worked all summer."
With five players missing because of various reasons, the Diamond was forced to jumble its lineup, Hewitt said. He pointed to players such as Beloso, Joey Grady and John Luedke as examples of players adapting to the situation.
"Beloso is one of those players who will go wherever we need him," Hewitt said. "He's played several positions, including pitching. Even better, is that he has had a hot bat. We need him to stay hot at the plate."
Beloso pounded out two doubles in the win over Scotland, while Grady started at first base for the depleted Diamond, and came through with several big hits.
Luedke is the third person to play behind the plate for the Diamond this season.
"Grady did a great job," Hewitt said. "He had several big hits. Luedke is another example of the players on this team doing whatever it takes to win. He told me that if he was needed at catcher, he would play catcher."
Hewitt hopes to have some of his players back for tonight's contest, but he is ready to roll with whoever is on hand.
"We really feel confident," he said. "Our bats have been kind of streaky, but we've been getting the hits when we need them. A win over Scotland is always a good credibility win. It's a real good one for us, especially going into the playoffs."
