The quest for a state championship is set to get underway as the American Legion playoffs begin tonight.

Gaffney Post 109 wrapped up the No. 1 seed as the League VI champion and will host Orangeburg in the first game of a best-of-five series at 7 p.m. at Commissioner’s Field.

Post 109 held the top spot in League VI from start to finish, but coach Jeff Osment says his team has to forget about its success in the regular season.

“Everybody in the playoffs is a good team and deserves to be there. You have to throw everything out,” Osment said. “Everyone is undefeated now, and you can only worry about the next game.”

Inman Post 45 is the No. 2 seed and will travel to Easley for Game 1 at 7:30 p.m.

Inman enters the playoffs on a roll having won 11 of its past 12 games, including back-to-back victories against league foes Spartanburg and Gaffney.

Post 45 coach Steve Skinner hopes his team can continue its hot streak.

“I think we should be OK going in. We’ve played a lot of games the past (three weeks), but everyone should be fresh,” Skinner said. “We’ve had some big games and played very good defense which kept us in a lot of games. We’ve just got to continue doing what we’ve been doing.”

Spartanburg enters as the No. 3 seed and will begin the playoffs at Greenwood at 7:30 p.m.

However, Post 28 has earned an automatic bid to the state tournament due to hosting the event at Duncan Park beginning July 29.

Despite losing several of its heavy hitters from last year’s league championship team, coach Matthew West says the team has played inspired baseball all season long.

“They feel that they can play with anybody,” West said. “Being able to compete with Gaffney and Inman helped them. They have also done everything we’ve asked them to do.”

Osment added each team will have to bring its “A” game in order to continue playing at the end of the month.

“You hopefully have guys that want to compete,” he said. “The goal is to be state champions, and you hope the players understand that.”

SC State Standing