Bench-Clearing Brawl Ends Cherryville Post's Season (With Video)

SUMTER, S.C.,None — In perhaps the most disappointing end to any area American Legion baseball season, Cherryville Post 100's bid for a Southeast Regional title ended Sunday morning with a double forfeit.

The rare decision, made after consultation with national Legion officials, came after a bench-clearing brawl in the bottom of the fourth inning of an elimination game.

Cherryville had just taken a 4-0 lead when an incident involving several players spilled over behind home plate. During the melee that lasted about three minutes, Douglasville's bench emptied and all but three Cherryville players left Post 100's bench area.

Scott Ehret, the regional tournament director, announced the decision to an anxious crowd at Riley Park after umpires conferred and tournament officials made phone calls to the national office about the matter. See video from the game here.

"By rule, these two teams will both forfeit and eliminated from the tournament," Ehret told the crowd, eliciting some boos but mostly disbelief.

Cherryville coach Bobby Reynolds was clearly disappointed at how his season ended.

"Instead of pointing fingers as far as who was at fault, they kind of took the easy way out and told us we were both out of the tournament," said Reynolds, whose season ends with a 32-8 overall record, seventh N.C. state title and fourth-place finish in the regional.

The incident that caused all the excitement came shortly after Ryan Craft's two-out, two-run single increased Cherryville's lead from 2-0 to 4-0.

After the second runner (Blake Mosteller) scored after sliding into home plate and brushing by Douglasville catcher Zachary Graves, words were exchanged between Mosteller and Graves. Then, after Mosteller was about 10 feet away from home plate, Graves threw the baseball and hit Mosteller in the back, touching off the melee.

"They had a collision at the plate when my player was scoring," Reynolds said. "He pushed him and then threw the ball at him. (Cherryville first baseman) Trey (Drewery) asked him why he did it, and he (Graves) punched Trey in the face and tackled him. And here we go."

Douglasville coach Kent Quinn likened it to a football unsportsmanlike penalty.

"I'd put it football terms: When the first person that does something, it's the second person that gets caught," Quinn said. "We unloaded the benches. And that was wrong."

When asked if he felt Graves was the "first person" who caused the incident, Quinn offered: "He pretty much instigated it. Everybody knows that. Absolutely."

Reynolds was equally disappointed in that his team was winning and appeared to have its pitching lined up to make a run at winning the regional, which would have required four more Cherryville wins.

"We were playing well," said Reynolds, whose team was hopeful of advancing to the Legion World Series in Shelby later this week. "We were winning 4-0 and rolling. And we were set up to pitch our best tonight and tomorrow.

"It never starts if they don't physically attack us. It's an unfortunate way to end this tournament and this season."

Douglasville ended its season 29-7.

"I'm devastated with my team," Quinn said. "Obviously, tempers with 18- and 19-year-olds can be tough to deal with at times."

WSOC