On the first day of the South Carolina American Legion State Tournament, West Columbia didn’t need to break a sweat to move into the winners’ bracket.

On the second, Post 79 sweated until the final out, and not because of the excessive heat, but because of a 10–8 10–inning victory Saturday night against Rock Hill, which entered on a 19–game winning streak.

West Columbia fell behind 7–0, threw out the game–winning run at the plate in the bottom of the ninth, and scored five of its final seven runs on two–out hits.

“The thing from this game is the momentum; we hadn’t played in a couple of weeks, so a win like this will carry over,” winning pitcher Wesley Camp said.

Saturday night’s game was Post 79’s first of the tournament. It’s first–day opponent, Hilton Head, forfeited when it showed up with 11 players, one shy of the mandated minimum. That forfeit came on the heels of Greenville forfeiting its second–round series to West Columbia after one full game and several days of rainouts.

To shed the rust, West Columbia and Richland scrimmaged in the week leading to the tournament. It didn’t work. Post 79 committed five errors and numerous mistakes in the first five innings. Then several players stepped up.

Camp held Rock Hill to one run in six innings of relief including a stretch in which he retired 11 of 13 batters. Camp reached base four times, produced three hits, scored three runs, and stole two bases.

“I just wanted to get ahead of the count and make them fight off my pitches instead of sitting on theirs,” Camp said. “They came out hitting early, and we were rusty. But keeping the score at 7 was big. It gave us a chance to come back.”

Corey Holmes started that comeback with a three–run homer in the fifth.

“It was a 2–0 count, so I was expecting a fastball. It was the last fastball they threw me,” Holmes said. “We were a little aggravated. We weren’t making plays behind our pitcher. That homer gave us the spark we needed.”

Matt Tanner produced a team–high four hits and drove in four of West Columbia’s final seven runs. His two–out single in the eighth brought home two, tying the score at 7. He added a one–out chop single over third in the 10th driving in Post 79’s second and final run in the inning.

Center fielder Todd Joyner, who had started on the mound, threw out the game–winning run at the plate to end the ninth and force the game into extra innings tied at 8. Though Rock Hill tied the game on the Drew Hardee’s ground single up the middle with runners on second and third, Joyner’s aggressive charge and strike to the plate beat the runner from second.