Still playing ball

By Cindy Landrum  

JULY 21, 2011 1:51 p.m. (1)

American Legion Post 3’s baseball team is a lesson in overcoming adversity.

Two seasons ago, it looked like the post wouldn’t field a team for the first time since 1933 but then a local doctor rallied support from former players and Legionnaires and a squad was put together in less than two weeks.

The team won four games all summer and finished in last place.

Last season, the team won the league championship and first round of the playoffs only to have to forfeit the second round because some of its players played in the Big League World Series and inadvertently violated the American Legion’s rule against dual participation during the post-season.

Three players left this year’s team and another, Travelers Rest’s Robbie Gillespie, who led his high school team to the Peach Blossom Conference regional championship, suffered a head injury and several broken bones in his face during a collision at home plate in a playoff game last week.

That leaves the team with the minimum of 12 players required by the American Legion to field a team.

But the team has qualified for the state tournament that begins Saturday in Goose Creek.

“We still have a little more adversity to overcome,” said Mark Jackson, the doctor who rallied support for the team in 2009 and now serves as the team’s manager.

Their opponent in the first game is Sumter, which Jackson calls the premier team in American Legion baseball in South Carolina and one of the best in the southeast.

“They’re the Goliath,” he said. “Win, lose or draw, it’s been a good season.”

The state tournament is a double-elimination tournament with the winner qualifying for regionals.

Post 3 Coach David Donald said the team, comprised of players from Berea, Travelers Rest, Wade Hampton, J.L. Mann and Greenville high schools and some first-year college players, wants to continue to win for Gillespie.

“Robbie was very instrumental in getting us here,” Donald said. “He’s a utility guy. You asked him to do something and he did it well.”

Gillespie hit the game-winning home run and was the winning pitcher in the game before his injury.

Gillespie was released from the hospital on Monday, Donald said. He faces reconstructive surgery next week in Columbia.

“The boys want to keep winning for him,” Jackson said.