APEX - The Apex American Legion Post 124 baseball team did everything they could to overcome the dominance of Cary Post 67 in a recent first round Senior Legion playoff series.

Apex had split its games with Cary during the regular season, with both decided by one run.

All season, Cary proved especially hard for area teams to overcome because they have strong pitching, led by former Athens Drive standout Blair Betts and Max Povse, who just graduated from Green Hope and was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Unfortunately for Apex, they came out on the short end again as Post 67 swept the first two games in the best of three series.

Cary won the first contest 11-6 and then belted out clutch hits and capitalized on the terrific pitching of Betts to overcome Apex 8-0 in the deciding game.

Betts, who will be transferring from Indiana University to UNC-Greensboro in the fall, pitched seven innings and recorded 10 strikeouts.

"Blair had all his pitches working tonight," said Cary manager Robert Stephenson. "Anthony Colantino also called an excellent game behind the plate; I don't think a single pitch went by him all night."

With the win, Cary advanced to the second round where they faced Garner in a best of three series this weekend.

Apex's season is over.

"We were right there with them, but we didn't get enough hits," said Apex manager Tim Harrell, whose team was limited to just four hits. "Cary is the real deal with about four or five Division 1 pitchers."

He continued: "Our guys had a good time this year," he continued. "We were involved in six one-run ballgames but we just had a little trouble closing."

Anthony Colantino blasted a two-run home run to break open a scoreless game in the top of the fifth inning.

Up to that point, Apex pitcher Keaton Oaks had held the strong Cary hitters at bay, but a controversial call at first base - where it appeared Apex had turned a double play to get out of the inning - allowed Colantino a chance to drive in teammate Will Yoder with a 365-foot blast over the centerfield wall.

"Their pitcher threw a fine ballgame and it took us forever to figure him out," Stephenson said. "He finally got tired and we got some hits on him."

The game remained 2-0 through seven innings. Then in the top of the eighth, Cary added three insurance runs when second baseman Nick Addona slammed a bases-loaded double into the centerfield wall, scoring Colantino (3-for-5), Snotherly and Tyler Lapp.

Apex had its best opportunity in the bottom of the eighth, when they loaded the bases on singles by Brandon Williams and Ben Brown and a walk by Kyle Tighe, but Snotherly, who had come on in relief for Betts, earned a clutch strikeout to end the inning.

Snotherly then drove in three more in the final frame to conclude the scoring.