Post 21 junior softball loses late lead, bounced from playoffs in 1st round
Post 21 third baseman Janiyah Benjamin (21) attempts to tag a runner out during a home contest versus Shelby Post 82 earlier this month.
The Burke County Post 21 junior softball team escaped a 3-1 deficit to take the lead on Tuesday night in the opening round of the N.C. American Legion Lady Fastpitch playoffs but couldn’t hang on late, ending its season with a 5-4, eight-inning setback at the hands of Rowan County Post 146.
Tuesday’s postseason contest was played at Catawba College in Salisbury.
After stranding the bases loaded in the first inning, Post 21 (7-8) seized a 1-0 advantage in the top of the second as second baseman Harper Best tripled to right field to lead things off and scored on a single up the middle by catcher Jaiden Bame.
Rowan took its first lead at 2-1 thanks to a two-out rally in the third, then plated an unearned run after a Post 21 fielding error an inning later for a 3-1 lead.
Post 21 right fielder Lily Thompson opened the top of the fifth with a single, and center fielder Ava Hensley followed suit. Shortstop Sophia Davis then drove in Thompson with a single to left before Hensley scored the tying run via a double steal.
Left fielder Emma Fish restarted things in the frame with a two-out double to center, and first baseman Kelly Scales also doubled to center with two outs to give Post 21 a 4-3 edge.
Whitley Strange pitches for Post 21 during a home contest earlier this month. Strange struck out nine batters over seven-plus innings, but Post 21 was edged, 4-3, to end its season in the opening round of the state playoffs on the road Tuesday.
Post 21 pitcher Whitley Strange then worked out of a two-out jam in the bottom of the fifth to preserve the lead, and after the guests went scoreless in the sixth, again made the lead stand up by pitching around two baserunners in the bottom of the sixth.
Fish connected on her second double of the game in the seventh but was left on, and Rowan led off its half of the final scheduled inning with a walk that came back to haunt Post 21 in the form of the tying run to force extra innings.
Post 21 got two runners on with one out in the eighth but again could not score, and four straight Rowan walks ended things in the bottom of the eighth.
Fish supplied a team-high three hits altogether, while Scales, Best, Bame (walk), and Thompson (SB) added two hits each. Hensley added a walk and two stolen bases, and third baseman Janiyah Benjamin singled to end the season with a 10-game hitting streak.
Strange pitched the whole way, striking out nine batters on 127 pitches over seven-plus innings from the circle in which she scattered seven hits, walked seven, and yielded four earned runs.
Teams that advance through the playoffs this week will next be in action at the junior legion state tournament hosted by the town of Sawmills in Caldwell County starting on Monday, July 20.
Baird Park will serve as the primary game site, with either Veterans Park or South Caldwell High School most likely serving as a secondary site.
NOTE: The same sites will also host next week’s American Legion Lady Fastpitch senior state tournament. Post 21’s senior legion squad did not participate in this year’s playoffs, finishing the 2026 campaign with an overall record of 4-7.
