HAMLET — Summer baseball in Richmond County officially came to an end Sunday.
The Hamlet American Legion baseball team wrapped up the program’s sixth season of play since returning in 2021 with a second-round playoff defeat.
No. 5 Post 49 came up short in its best-of-three-games series against No. 1 Rowan County Post 342 in the Area 3 Conference playoffs.
Hamlet nearly pulled off an upset in game one Saturday on the road, but lost 6-5 in 10 innings. That was followed by a 6-3 loss at Memorial Park in game two Sunday.
Head coach Eric Brown, who led the team for the first time this season, said Hamlet had chances to take down the top seed. He added that the 2026 season was one of growth and player development.
“We knew we were facing the reigning state runner-up, and our guys gave it all they had and made a run at it,” Brown said of the series with Rowan. “There were several chances in game one where we could have won and put ourselves in a better position for game two. It just didn’t come together for us.
“The goal every season is to win games, and we did that this summer. This group of players was younger than previous teams, but it’s a talented group and the guys really started playing well late in the season. While we didn’t get back to the state tournament, that doesn’t mean we weren’t successful.
“There is a lot of value in our players developing individually and as teammates during summer ball, and that was our focal point from the start,” Brown added. “We wanted to get better with each inning and each at-bat, and I think we achieved that, whether that was for preparing for high school ball or the next level. There is an element of fun with summer ball and I felt like we incorporated that while making our players better young men and students of the game.”
In the series opener against Rowan, Hamlet took a 3-2 lead in the top of the eighth inning thanks to a solo homer by Caden Nolan (Belmont Abbey College).
An RBI groundout by Drew Gause (Richmond) and a RBI base hit from Maddox Locklear (Richmond) gave Post 49 a 5-3 advantage in the 10th inning. Rowan rallied with three runs in the home half, however, scoring on a two-RBI single and an error.
Sunday’s season finale began with a 2-1 lead after the first inning for Hamlet. Nolan kept his bat hot with a two-run shot, which plated himself and teammate Miken Concepcion (Christ the Cornerstone Academy).
Post 342 scored four runs in the top of the second and built a lead that Hamlet couldn’t erase.
Evan Hodges (Lenoir Community College) recorded a base hit in the third inning. Courtesy runner Jabari Douglas (Johnson & Wales University) scored the team’s final run later in the inning as the result of an error.
Trailing 5-3, Hamlet allowed Rowan to score a solo run in the top of the fifth. The 49ers stranded two runners on base in the fifth inning, another in the sixth frame and one final base runner in the seventh.
The 49ers finished the summer campaign with a 7-9 overall record, including a 2-2 mark in the postseason.
