Chapin-Newberry American Legion Baseball will celebrate the 10th
anniversary of the 2015 American Legion World Series championship
team Friday at 7 pm when the 2025 team takes on the Joanna Hornets at
Newberry College.
The 2015 team compiled a
32-1 record, won the state championship, the Southeastern region
championship and then captured the World Series, defeating New Orleans,
Louisiana 9-2 for the championship in Shelby, NC at Keeter Stadium. The
2015 Chapin-Newberry team and the 1936 Spartanburg team are the only
teams from South Carolina to ever win the American Legion World Series.
Ryan Stoudemire, a standout on the 2015 team and now the
head coach of Chapin-Newberry, is excited about Friday's game and
reunion. "I really don’t think we realized we were a special group
until after
it was over," he said. "That’s what made this team so good. We didn’t
care about
the personal accolades or statistics. We were just a really close group
of friends that wanted to have fun and were willing to do anything we
could to help the team win. And we kept winning and having fun until
they wouldn’t let us play anymore."
After a stellar regular season and despite entering the ALWS
with a 28-0 record, Chapin-Newberry was considered a long-shot to win it
all as there were several traditional powers in the eight-team field.
C-N started with a thrilling 2-1 victory over former
champion Midland, Michigan as C-N scored twice in the bottom of the
ninth. The next day their unbeaten season came to an end with a 5-2 loss
to New Orleans, who had won the championship in 2012. Then in a
must-win
situation and down 6-0 to Cromwell, Connecticut, C-N stormed back to
win 7-6 and advance. In the semifinals against Medford, Oregon, C-N was
down 3-1 going into the
top of the eighth but scored a run in the eighth and two in the ninth
to win 4-3.
In the championship on August 18, C-N
scored first and built a seven-run lead to defeat New Orleans and
capture the crown, before the largest championship game attendance
(8,826) since 1949. A traditional baseball "dog-pile" ensued as the
Chapin-Newberry players celebrated the championship
C-N’s 32-1
record was the best national record since East Lynn, Massachusetts went
38-1 in 1937. The five-day tournament set a new attendance record with
117,072.
Justin
Hawkins was the recipient of the George W. Rulon American Legion Player of The
Year. He hit three home runs in the World Series, including a two-run first-inning home run in the championship.
After an undefeated regular season, Chapin-Newberry
swept the state championship in Sumter in five games, defeating Florence for the state
championship. That earned C-N a berth to represent the Palmetto State
in the regional championship in Asheboro, NC. Chapin-Newberry swept
the region tourney, which consisted of teams from Alabama, Florida,
Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia, to advance to the
World Series.
"It’s hard to put into words what this team and the run
we went on means to me," Stoudemire said. "Many of these guys are still some of my best
friends to this day and are some of the fondest memories I have.
"Many of my favorite memories were off the field. Of course there were
some big games that will be remembered forever. Like the multiple come
from behind wins in Shelby and coming back from our only loss of the
season to Louisiana and being able to beat them for the championship. We
spent so much time together, and there was never a dull moment. Whether
Ryne Huggins was doing his pranks, to the PGA Tour XBox matches, to
getting stuck in the elevator as a team 15 minutes after arriving in
Shelby, good times were a guarantee when this group was together."
No comments:
Post a Comment