Richland Post 215 defeated Florence Post 1 4-1 to win the South Carolina Legion State Championship. Contributed by Chris Dorsey
Richland Post 215 head coach Chris Dorsey has a framed picture from 2022 of his first 215 team. It’s the same picture used in an article about the team written in the June 23, 2022 edition of The Columbia Star.
For Dorsey, the picture represents the foundation of the program he’s had a big hand in building. On Thursday, July 31 his Richland Post 215 team defeated Florence Post 1 4-1 to win it’s first South Carolina Legion State Championship.
The 2025 State Championship marks a major milestone in Dorsey’s four-year plan for the program. That plan began in 2022 on his back porch where he was spending time with four high school seniors.
His son Cannon, along with Phillips Daniels, Zander Buchan, and Jake Sears, were weeks away from graduation and the next step in their lives. The older Dorsey asked the boys what their plans were for the summer. Each talked about the different summer teams they would be playing for. Dorsey asked if they would want to play American Legion baseball.
“They asked me what was American Legion,” Dorsey said. “They didn’t even know. My dream was to bring American Legion back. I had it in my back pocket, but that’s when we decided to go forward with it.”
Dorsey was familiar with American Legion, having played it himself while growing up.
The four boys agreed. Buchan even turned down an opportunity to play for a big travel baseball organization to join Dorsey’s team.
“Once I had the core guys, they made phone calls to their friends and we put together a team for American Legion in early May when we decided to do this,” Dorsey said. “By May 28, as we were getting ready for our first game, my assistant coaches and I didn’t have any idea what we were about to get into.”
That first game was against Lancaster Post 31 and current University of South Carolina pitcher Amp Phillips. Post 215 won 1-0.
Then Post 215 faced Florence Post 1, coached by Derick Urquhart, who won his 600th game in 2025. Dorsey took the opportunity to study how the coaching legend ran his program.
Post 215 made it to the state tournament and finished in the top four in the state that season.
“I will always be indebted to those players,” Dorsey said. “I reached out to every one of those guys after we won the state championship and sent them a text telling them, ‘I hope you know how big you all were in this state championship because without you we’re not even a legion team.’
“At the end of the season I learned so much. I was upset because I thought we could have won a state championship that first season. Then I started to think about it and realized it was going to take some time. I had a four-year plan to win a state championship because that was a realistic plan. That was a way for us to recruit the best players. That was a way for us to navigate through a season and put our best roster out there. That was the way to get the team we have now, a dugout led team.”
While Dorsey’s coaching style hasn’t changed, he has made changes to how he runs the program.
That first year Post 215 played its games at Heathwood Hall. Dorsey and his assistant coaches would get to the school hours before each game to set up. Following the 2022 season, Dorsey hired Montague Lafitte to serve as a general manager for the senior team.
Dorsey also turned Richland Baseball Inc. into a 501c3. The organization supports youth sports in Richland County, including Post 215. The move allowed Dorsey to raise funds through corporations. That strategy and the community support has paid dividends, especially during the 2025 season. Post 215 had to travel to Murrell’s Inlet, a three-hour drive. Not wanting his players to travel back to Richland County in the early hours of the morning, Dorsey went to social media to find out how he could rent a charter bus. Within half an hour, he received six direct messages. Then he approached Patty Ward, with War Financial Services and the grandmother of Post 215’s Jacob Muir. Ward helped pay for the bus and a pregame meal.
Dorsey also moved Post 215’s home games from Heathwood Hall to A.C. Flora at the behest of Falcons’ baseball coach Andy Hallett.
Dorsey saw his program flourish. His senior team has won it’s league— consisting of West Columbia Post 79, Lexington Post 7, and Chapin Newberry Post 193/24—three of the last four years. It’s also made the state tournament three of the last four years.
Post 215 has also grown. In 2023, Dorsey got requests to add more teams. He agreed and started a 17u team. The 17u team won a state championship in 2024. Also in 2024, Dorsey added a 15u team. In 2025, there were six teams and 106 players playing.
The 2025 season has been a compelling one. Post 215 went into the final game of the regular season against West Columbia Post 79 needing to win to claim a No. 1 seed in the state tournament. A loss would have dropped them to a No. 2 seed. Richland won the game 3-2 and claimed a top seed.
However, the road to the state championship game didn’t get any easier. Post 215 defeated Horry Legion Baseball in two games to advance and take on Post 79 for the fourth time. Guided by an eight-run fourth inning, Post 215 knocked off Post 79 11-1 and faced Florence Post 1 the next day.
That game was tied 3-3 heading into the sixth inning before Post 215 scratched across four runs and held on to a 7-6 win.
On July 28, Post 215 took on Inman Post 45 at a neutral site. Dorsey was a little concerned heading into the game considering Post 45 posted 18 runs and 21 hits against Camden Post 17, but pitcher Miller Peele held Post 45 to two runs and three hits as Post 215 won 4-2.
Post 215 faced an interesting scenario heading into a game against Post 17 at Founders Park on July 30. A win over Camden would mean Post 215 would have to be beaten twice in the next round. If they lost, it would only be one game. Post 215 was unable to overcome a rough start, a four-run first inning by Post 17, and lost 5-2.
That set up a championship game between Post 215 and the winner of Post 17 and Florence Post 1. The two teams battled Thursday afternoon with Post 1 coming out on top 7-2, and for the second time in less than a week Post 1 and Post 215 would meet.
The game started at 7 p.m. at Founders Park. However, lightning delays forced the game to move to A.C. Flora’s Falcon Field for the final inning with Post 215 leading 3-0.
Moving the game to A.C. Flora coincided with the Falcons’ start of preseason football practice so fans at Falcon Field included football players and parents. The two teams traded runs in the seventh inning and Post 215 came out on top to claim the state championship.
One reason for Post 215’s success has been leadership.
“I wanted a dugout led team and I explained that to the team,”Dorsey said. “It became that within a week. When the best players are the best leaders, you’re going to have a really good team, and that’s what we have. I knew within a week or two this was going to be a joyful team to be around this summer.”
Pitching has also been a big part of Post 215’s success starting with Sam McCutcheon, who has thrown 38-and-1/3 innings with an ERA of 2.191 and 54 strikeouts. Peele is the No. 2 pitcher, having thrown 25-and-1/3 innings with a 3.316 ERA.
Hank Collins and Ryan Harrelson did not plan to come out for the team this year. Neither had played baseball in a year and had concerns about getting back into shape. Dorsey talked them into playing and both had phenomenal seasons, with Collins being named the MVP of the state tournament. Monty Laffitte also saw signficant time on the mound.
Zach Snead and Alvin Murray III led Post 215 at the plate. Snead hit a team leading .409 with two home runs and 17 RBIs. He was named MVP during the state tournament. Murray was second on the team with a .396 batting average and 15 RBIs. Tyler Hernandez, Mason O’Cain, and Jack Chetwood all have batting averages over .300.
Muir, Thatcher Baughman, Roper Wentzky, and Tyler Hernandez round out the lineup.
Post 215 now heads to the Southeast Regionals, beginning Wednesday, August 6 in Ashboro, North Carolina in a double elimination tournament. The first game is against Puerto Rico. That will provide a special moment for assistant coach Chris Biggs, who was on Irmo’s Legion team in 1985 that made it to the regionals and also faced Puerto Rico.
The tournament also presents some challenges. The majority of the players are in high school. Some play other sports. With preseason football practice underway and school starting soon, Dorsey is heading to North Carolina without his full roster. The absence of some of the starters allows players like Breon Earle and Evan Smith to see signficant playing time.
The regionals run until Sunday, August 10. Should Post 215 win the regionals, the team will advance to the World Series in Shelby, North Carolina beginning Thursday, August 14.
“The state championship is the most important part,” Dorsey said. “Every team in South Carolina has all their players. Once the regionals start and school and football start, it’s just different. That’s why the four year plan was to win a state championship. I had not even thought about Southeast regionals. Now I get to learn about the regionals and World Series and what it takes to win those. That’s a whole different plan.”
Dorsey already saw what kind of boost the program got from the first team that won its league and finished in the top four. He seems confident the 2025 team’s run to a state championship and the Southeast Regionals should offer another boost.
“If you don’t want to play for us now as a status symbol program, state champs, with the best players, then you don’t like ice cream,” Dorsey said.
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