Clayton Post 71 survived a marathon battle with Raleigh Post 1 Tuesday night to advance to the semifinals of the American Legion Baseball Area I West playoffs. Post 71 took a 20-5 win in eight innings, on a night that included a two-hour delay for rain and lightning.

Post 71 will meet North Chatham beginning Thursday night in a best-of-three series. The series schedule is as follows...

Thursday, Game 1: Clayton at North Chatham (Northwood High School), 7 p.m.

Friday, Game 2: North Chatham at Clayton (Smithfield-Selma High School), 7 p.m.

Saturday, Game 3 (if necessary): Clayton at North Chatham (Northwood High School), 7 p.m.

Garner Post 232 meets Cary in another semifinal series, also beginning Thursday. We're waiting on the series schedule on that one.

The first round matchups in the Area 1 West Quarterfinal American Legion Baseball playoffs, which begin Sunday night, have been set. All series are best two-of-three games. We'll update the progress each day here.

Sunday, July 3
Game 1 of 3
Clayton at Raleigh (East Wake), 7
Roxboro at Garner, 7
Monday, July 4
Game 2 of 3
Raleigh at Clayton (Smithfield-Selma High), 7
Garner at Roxboro, 4
Tuesday, July 5
Game 3 of 3
Roxboro at Garner, 7 (if necessary)
Clayton at Raleigh (East Wake), 7 (if necessary)

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.