HobbsDailyReport.com
SHELBY – Shelby won a pitcher’s duel on Sunday to eliminate visiting Taylorsville Post 170 in the Area IV American Legion baseball playoffs.
For a complete look at all of the scores from each round of the Area IV playoffs and additional pairings, see an earlier post on the website.
Shelby’s Caleb Plummer pitched a nine-inning complete game, and Trae Starnes threw all eight innings for Taylorsville in Shelby’s 3-1 win at Shelby High that tossed Post 170 out of postseason play in the second round.
West No. 2 Taylorsville finished 17-6-1.
Shelby (19-6), the East No. 3 seed, earned a best-of-5 semifinal bid and will face East No. 1 seed Union County (21-3), which closed its series by sweeping West No. 4 Asheville on Saturday night.
The semifinals are scheduled to begin on Wednesday at the highest seeds.
All of the runs in Sunday’s game at Shelby were scored in the second inning (by Taylorsville) and the seventh inning (by Shelby).
Each team had five hits.
Plummer’s line as the winning pitcher was nine innings, five hits, one run (earned) with one walk and seven strikeouts.
Starnes (2-1) threw eight innings, giving up five hits, three runs (two earned) with no walks and six strikeouts.
Plummer and Riley Cash each had a hit and one RBI for Shelby, and Lawson Harrill, Logan McNeely and Ben Ledbetter each had one hit.
Taylorsville’s five hits were one each by Rhyne Johnson, Starnes, Grayson Chapman, Derek Dyson and Daniel Dessecker. Dyson’s double was the only extra base hit of the game.
The other semifinal series will pit the winner of West No. 1 Cherryville-East No. 4 Gastonia against the winner of East No. 6 Mint Hill-East No. 2 Gaston Braves.