Fort Mill Post 43 has clinched a spot in the American Legion playoffs starting next week. The postseason has eluded the team for the past few years.

Post 43 had a double header Tuesday at Clover and the regular-season finale will be a home game against league-leading Chester.

Fort Mill still has an outside shot to finish first but would need to win three straight and have Chester lose its remaining four contests.

Entering the final week of the season Chester was 10-2. Fort Mill (8-5) was second and Rock Hill (7-7) was third. Chester and Fort Mill are definitely in the playoffs. Rock Hill needs a win or a loss by Clover to continue into the postseason.

Fort Mill coach Erik Baddeley was disappointed his team lost a double header to Rock Hill Post 34 last week. Fort Mill lost the first game 15-3 and the night cap 9-7.

"The double header didn't go the way we wanted," Baddeley said. "The first game Rock Hill just got some hits off good pitches. The second game was a big let down because we battled back to take the lead and then lost.

"Errors have killed us all year. We have had four or five errors in each of our losses this year. Mental and physical errors have been our biggest downfall," Baddeley said.

Fort Mill has been hitting the ball well. Post 43 is hitting .330 as a team, according to Baddeley. Four players have batting averages above the .400 mark: Alex Matzeit (.452), Chris Honeycutt (.435), Kyle Whitman (.419) and David Flanagan (.400).

Matzeit, a third baseman, is a rising senior at Indian Land High School. Honeycutt plays for former Winthrop standout Art Inabinet at Francis Marion College. Whitman will be a freshman at Nation Ford High in the fall. Flanagan is primarily a pitcher for Montreat College, where he just completed his freshman year.

"Hopefully we can get on a roll heading into the playoffs," Baddeley said.

Legion standings