Thursday, October 1, 2026
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Cherryville, NC (WNN) - The road to Shelby and a spot in the American Legion World Series has a pit stop in Gastonia, NC, beginning this weekend. The 2026 American Legion Baseball NC State Tournament is being hosted by the Gaston Braves Post 144/266 at Sims Legion Park beginning Friday, July 24th at 1 pm with a pre-tournament seeding game between host Gaston Braves and Area IV runners-up Shelby Post 82. The full tournament will officially begin Saturday, July 25th, at 10 am with Rowan County Post 342 facing Wilmington Red Post 10.
This year’s tournament features several teams with plenty of state tournament appearances and titles. Wilmington will be making its 19th appearance, followed by Cherryville at 17, Rowan County at 16, Garner Nationals at 16, and Shelby with 12. The rest of the field has Wilson with 3, Beulaville with 2, and the Gaston Braves are making their inaugural appearance. Five teams have state titles; leading the way is Wilmington with 13, followed by Rowan County with 9, Cherryville and Shelby with 7, and Garner with 4.
This year’s tournament should be very competitive with so many teams having playoff experience and success. The action on the field will be hot, and so will the weather. Sims Park offers a large, covered area complete with overhead fans to stay out of the direct sun and keep cool. Also, concessions will be sold to help those in attendance stay nourished and hydrated. As with all American Legion tournaments, medical staff will also be on site for anyone needing assistance.
The Nationals will enter the tournament 24-3, riding a 7-game win streak and having lost only 1 game in July. They have won 14 of their last 15 games. Garner boasts a team batting average of .366, with 202 RBIs and 247 runs scored while allowing 73 runs. They have 19 home runs and have stolen 59 bases. Coach Chris Cook has managed the team for 17 seasons and has made the state tournament all but one of those years.
Wilson plays close games; they have scored 118 runs and allowed 118 runs (91 earned). Their team batting average is .264 with 5 home runs, 103 RBIs, and 33 stolen bases. Their main strength is defense. Post 13 has 11 players with a fielding percentage of .900 or higher. Their season record is 16-9.
Post 13 has played continuously in American Legion Baseball for 60 years and, during that time, has produced 8 professional players. Over the past 8 seasons, they have had 58 college signings.
The 13-7 Beulaville Post 511 team punched their ticket to the state with a gusty come-from-behind win over Wilmington Blue Post 10 in the Area II semifinals. They were down by 6 with only 6 outs remaining, yet fought their way back to take the series and eventually defeated Wilmington Red Post 10 in the finals to claim the Championship.
Post 511 is stingy on defense, allowing 94 runs to average 4.7 runs allowed per game. They bring a 4-game win streak, having gone undefeated in the Area II playoffs. The team has a batting average of .299, scored 140 runs, hit 4 home runs, recorded 94 RBIs, and stolen 69 bases.
This is Wilmington’s 17th trip to the state tournament in the past 19 years. This year, they are 22-5; they know what it takes to win. Post 10-Red is one of two Wilmington Post 10 teams, both of which made the Area II playoffs. During the Area playoffs, Patrick McIntosh pitched a 1 hit shut out, and they outscored Tabor City 39-0 in the Area II semifinals. They scored plenty of runs and allowed very few thanks to strong hitting, great pitching, and defense.
This is one of the hottest teams entering the tournament. Having won 8 of the last 9 games, they had a 21-game win streak at one point in the season. They are 31-4 overall and are hitting .334 as a team with 21 total home runs. Cole Blevins and Carter Durant lead the team with 6 home runs each. Cole Blevins also has the leading average, .531, and the most walks, 34. Ryan Alexander has an average of .500, Abel Brown .429, Jayven Parks .429, and Eli Graham .373. Eli is also the ace pitcher at 6-1 with 44.1 innings pitched and an ERA of 2.37. This team can light up the scoreboard while limiting their opponent.
Union County does not allow many opposing teams to score many runs. They recently held the hot-hitting Rowan County to just 4 runs in the Area III Championship game. Over the season, they are allowing 3.72 runs per game. Austin Martinez pitched a no-hitter, a 1-0 shutout against Randolph County in the Area III semifinals. He went 7 innings, allowing 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 walks, and struck out four. The 21-8 Post 535 are making their third straight appearance under coach Brad Elwood.
Another hot team entering the tournament is the 23-5 Post 100. They average just over 1 home run per game, totaling 29. Leading the onslaught was Tucker Sigmon with 11 home runs, followed by Nate Rollins with 7, and Beckett Rinkus with 4. Cherryville has also had some outstanding performances on the mound to complement their hot bats. Once on the bases, the runners are extremely aggressive, and Coach Bobby Dale Reynolds is crafty with his strategy with runners on base. They have won their last 6 games and are 16-1 over the last 17. This is a team you cannot afford to make mistakes against.
Shelby comes in with a record of 20-10. Post 82 has a strong group of pitchers and batters. Wyatt McSwain, Cooper Earl, and Max Davis have shown great command on the mound, and they have gotten power hitting at the plate from several players, including Wyatt McSwain, Max Davis, Drew Dixon, Luke Rayfield, Landry Ohmstead, and Luke Heavner, among others. Post 82 is a team you don’t relax against; they can come back quickly and never give up.
At 12-13 and being the host team, it would be easy to overlook the Braves. If a team does, they might be in for a disappointing day and tournament. Gaston is a much better team than their record suggests. They have not only gone toe-to-toe with the powerhouses of Area IV, but they have also dominated a few of the top teams this season in blowout wins. Several of their losses were very close games, decided by plays that could have easily gone their way. They are another team that can put up plenty of runs in just a few at-bats and always fight to the last out. This is not a team to sleep on.
The action will begin on Friday, July 24th, at 1 pm with a pre-tournament placement game between Host Gaston Braves and Area IV runners-up Shelby Post 82. Although similar, this is not a true play-in game. The tournament has 9 teams, so the extra game is needed to balance out the elimination bracket and avoid complex tie-breaking scenarios. Both teams will be in the tournament; however, the loser of game 1 will enter the field with 1 loss and will be automatically dropped into the elimination bracket. All teams will be in action on Saturday, except for the Friday game 1 loser, who will open the day on Sunday at 9 am in an elimination game. Saturday’s matchups will be: Rowan County and Wilmington at 10 am in Game 2; at 1 pm, Game 3: Cherryville and Wilson; at 4 pm, Game 4: Beulaville and Union County; and the nightcap is Game 5 between Garner and the winner of Friday’s Game 1. The tournament will conclude with a Champion being crowned on Wednesday. The State Champion will move on to the Southeast Regional to be held in Cherryville, NC, August 5th-9th. Now for the most famous words in Baseball, “Play Ball!”
