Championship surge?

For the first five innings on Tuesday, it appeared as if missed opportunities might doom Florence Post 1 to its first loss in the American Legion baseball state tournament.

Then the sixth and seventh innings rolled around -- and so did the Post 1 bats.

A couple of big errors by Chapin/Newberry Posts 193/24, four runs batted in by Noah Matthews and a 10-run outburst across two innings helped Florence rally for an 11-2 victory at Riley Park and send the defending World Series champions home.

With the win, Post 1 improved to 35-3 overall and will face Camden today at 10 a.m. with an eye on its third state championship in the last five seasons. Post 17 will have to beat Florence twice to claim the title.

Posts 193/24 end its season with a 21-7 mark.

“This was a big win for us,” Florence head coach Derick Urquhart said. “I was proud of the guys and especially the ones we had returning from last year. Those guys took it to us a few times last year. When you beat a quality team and a quality program like that, it just feels good.

“We’re in good shape, but still not done.”

It was tough sledding early on for Florence in the run department as it fell behind 2-1 after two innings. It loaded the bases in the first, but managed just a lone run on a C/N error. A double play in the third erased a potential rally with no outs and Post 1 also failed to bring a runner home from third with two outs in the fifth.

All that soon changed, however. Florence sent 20 men to the plate during the sixth and seventh innings and exploded for eight hits with two big C/N errors mixed in. Jon Mitchell Carter had a 2-run double in the sixth and both Matthews and Grayson Cottingham followed with RBI singles.

Matthews also had the big blow in the seventh with a 3-run single that ricocheted off Posts 193/24 second baseman Blake Smith to allow the speedy Post 1 runners to all score. Matthews finished 4-for-4 with a walk and three runs scored.

“Once one person on the team gets going, it’s like fireworks -- everyone on the team just starts popping off,” Matthews said. “Everything just goes from there. We all work as a team and we’re going to do our best to come out and do it again tomorrow.”

It was a tough pill to swallow for C/N, which was hoping to get through six innings with starter Peyton Spangler in order to give itself a chance to win two games today, but things didn’t unfold that way.

“We were one pitch away, one play away from that happening,” Posts 193/24 head coach Daniel Gregory said. “But the bottom line is that they made the plays and got the hits and we didn’t. When it was time for it, they got it done. Unfortunately, we didn’t do it tonight, especially late.”

Part of that was Florence starter Blake Robinson shaking off two early Chapin/Newberry runs to settle down and pitch a more-than-solid eight innings. He walked three, struck out seven and allowed seven hits -- including just three after the second inning.

“He’s not your typical No. 4 starter,” Urquhart said. “He was 3-0 with a 0.00 earned run average going into the game and hadn’t given up a run in 18 innings.

“We were a little worried early because he had to knock some rust off, but what an outstanding effort from him. We got the performance we needed and saved pitching again.”

Aside from Matthews, Cottingham also had four hits for Florence and drove in a run. Will Hardee had a pair of singles and Justin Thompson added a double.

No Chapin/Newberry batter had more than one hit. Ryan Stoudemire drove in the first run in the top of the first with a 2-out RBI single and Spangler was walked with the bases loaded in the second to drive in the other run.