Cary Post 67 defeated Garner Post 232 11-6 last night in the opening game of their best-of-three set in the American Legion Baseball Area I West divisional playoffs. Game 2 is tonight (Saturday) at Garner High School at 7.

Johnston County-based Post 71 downed Apex Post 124 in a wild Game 1 of their Area I West divisional playoff series, 18-16, on Friday night. Game 2 of the best-of-3 set is tonight (Saturday) at Apex High School.
 

Garner Post 232 completed a two-game playoff series sweep of Raleigh Post 1 Wednesday night with an 11-8 victory. Post 232 will meet Cary Post 67 starting Friday night for a three-game series. Johnston County-based Post 71 takes on Apex Post 124 in the other Area I West semifinal series.

The series schedules:

Garner Post 232 vs. Cary Post 67

Friday at 7: at Cary High School

Saturday at 7: at Garner High School

Sunday at 7 (if needed): at Cary High School

Post 71 Sabres vs. Apex Post 124

Friday at 7: at Smithfield-Selma High School

Saturday at 7: at Apex High School

Sunday at 7 (if needed): at Smithfield-Selma High School

Apex Post 124 rallied for a 7-6 victory over Durham Post 7 Tuesday night to sweep its American Legion Baseball opening-round Area 1 West playoff series. Post 124 will meet Johnston County-based Post 71 in a best-of-three second round series. The series is expected to begin Friday night at Smithfield-Selma High School. Subsquent games will be played on Saturday and Sunday (if needed).

Correspondent Michael Held reports on Garner's opening-round playoff victory:

As has been the case for most of this year’s American Legion season, Garner Post 232 had no problem scoring runs in the first game of its opening round playoff series against Raleigh Post 1.

Post 232 racked up 12 hits on its way to a 11-1 romp that gave Garner a 1-0 lead in its best-of-three series with Post 1.

Dillon Creech and Hayden Williams led the way at the plate as Creech was 4-for-4 and Williams was 3-for-4 with five RBIs. Austin Yarborough earned the win going six innings and giving up just the one run on nine hits.

Apex Post 124 moved a win away from advancing to the second round of the Area I West American Legion Baseball playoffs Monday night with a 16-9 victory over Durham Post 7. Post 124 goes for the series sweep tonight at Apex High School at 7 p.m.

The series winner faces Clayton Post 71 starting Friday night. If Game 3 is needed in the Apex-Durham series, it will be played Wednesday night in Durham.

The Area I West American Legion Baseball playoffs start tonight with best-of-three series. Division champs Clayton Post 71 and Cary Post 67 get byes into the second round (also best-of-three sets), which starts Friday.

Garner meets Raleigh Post 1 in an opening round series, while Apex Post 124 takes on Durham Post 7 in the other series.

Games 1 and 2 of the Garner-Raleigh series will be played at Trojan Park on the campus of Garner High School, starting Tuesday. If needed, Raleigh Post 1 will host a third game on Thursday night at a site to be determined.

Durham hosts Game 1 (and Game 3, if needed) in its series against Apex, which is the host squad for Tuesday night's game in that series.

Cary gets the winner of the Garner-Raleigh series at home on Friday night, while Clayton gets either Apex or Durham.

We'll keep things updated here with results updates during the week.

West Johnston rallied from a 6-1 deficit in the sixth inning to top the Cary Bulls 8-6 Thursday evening, taking the area conference American Legion Junior Baseball title outright. The Wildcats and Bulls will both play in the area tournament next weekend.

We'll have more on West's win in next week's editions of The Herald of Johnston County and the Garner-Clayton Record.

West Johnston's American Legion Junior Baseball team clinched no worse than a share of the conference championship Wednesday night with a 3-1 victory over the Cary Bulls. The two teams meet again tonight at 6 at Athens Drive High School in West's regular-season finale.

After suffering its first loss of the season to Leesville Road on Tuesday night, West bounced back with the win, improving to 19-1.

Cary Post 67 hit four first-inning home runs and led 7-0 but still had to rally from a 16-11 deficit to down Johnston County-based Post 71, 17-16, in Game 3 of the two teams' second round American Legion Baseball Area I West Semifinal on Wednesday night. The win gives Cary a 3-0 sweep in the series.

Will Smith's single capped Post 67's ninth-inning rally. Percy Evans hit three home runs on the night for Cary as well.

Will Stephenson turned in a great relief performance, giving Post 71 a chance to win. He threw seven innings of relief, entering the game with his team down 7-0 and leaving with the Sabres up 16-12.

Cary will face Durham Post 7 in the Area I West Championship series, beginning Sunday at Riverside High School.

We'll wrap up the series with complete reports in next week's editions of The Herald of Johnston County, the Garner-Clayton Record and The Cary News.