In the first round of the North Carolina American Legion Area 1 playoffs, Chatham Post 292 swept Wake Forest Post 187 in a best-of-five series, 3-0, winning its first playoff series in over two decades.
Landon Moser’s stellar batting led the way in Chatham’s 10-5 game one win, and it carried over throughout the series.
In the three games combined, Moser went 6-for-6 from the plate and recorded seven RBIs. For his first hit in the series, Moser hit a double in the bottom of the fifth inning in game one that knocked in Zane Overman and put Post 292 up 5-0. In the very next inning, Moser tripled on a line drive to center field to bring Overman home again and give Chatham a comfortable 10-2 lead.
Although he was the most impactful batter in game one, Moser’s best performance was in Chatham’s 11-5 victory in game three. Moser went 3-for-3 from the plate with a double and two singles, and each hit came with its own RBI. He also scored a run as a baserunner.
“(I was) just seeing it good out of the hand, breaking the hips good, (and) just staying ahead in counts,” Moser said.
Said Chatham head coach Will Felder, who coaches Moser at Jordan-Matthews, “(Moser) is probably one of the more dedicated kids to the game than seniors and even college players. On his days off, you can find him in the cage hitting 200-300 baseballs off a tee or off a machine…I love watching him grow and really become one of our guys at the plate.”
As a team, Chatham caught fire at the plate in games one and three, recording 10 and 11 hits, respectively. Ian McMillan joined Moser as the only individuals to record at least two hits in each of the two games as seven batters recorded at least one hit in game one, and six batters got a hit in game three.
Chatham didn’t find as much success from the plate in game two, but the outcome turned out ok thanks to starting pitcher Presley Patterson who pitched a near no-hitter in the 4-1 win. For the first six innings, Patterson didn’t allow a hit, nor did a run score on his watch.
However, Wake Forest’s Blake Tillery hit a triple to start the seventh inning, crushing any hopes of a no-hitter for Patterson. Patterson ended the game with seven strikeouts and six walks.
Other Chatham pitchers also made a significant impact on the team’s success in the series. Stratton Barwick, a rising sophomore on the Guilford College baseball team, pitched for six innings in game one and struck out 10 batters.
Anthony Lopossay pitched the final three at-bats of game two and maintained Chatham’s lead with two strikeouts. He also pitched the remaining four innings of game three, helping to keep Post 292 ahead after Anders Johansson’s first start on the mound this season.
“Our pitching has been great this year,” Felder said. “The depth we’ve been able to put out on the mound has really helped us out.”
For Chatham, history was made as the team hadn’t as much postseason success since before it returned from an over 20-year absence in 2023.
Last summer, Chatham finished the season with a 6-17 overall record and lost in the first round of the Area 3 playoffs.
“It’s really rewarding,” Felder said. “It takes a lot of guys to buy into the program. It takes the community to buy into the program and what we’re trying to do…We’ve got a good enough program where as coaches, we don’t have to do too much. That shows a lot of credit to their high school coaches (and) shows a lot of credit to those players as they’re doing a great job in their programs and they’re able to jell so well.”
Said Felder, “Seeing the transformation from year one to year two has been really nice.”
Chatham returned nine players from last year’s roster. Despite players also having other commitments during the summer that may cause them to miss games (travel ball and vacations), the team has more than doubled last year’s win total and put itself in position for a legit shot at an Area 1 title.
“This team is the pillar of dedication,” Moser said. “We’re playing five games a week (and) practicing on the other nights. Everybody wants to be here.”
Chatham began its second round best-of-five series with Garner Monday. Post 292 and Garner split their two regular season meetings with Chatham winning, 9-1, on June 18 and Garner winning, 3-1, on June 29.
