Mrs. ATVL was along for a trip to New Market last night, and snapped a few pictures. Enjoy!
Last night, the Valley League fell to the Cal Ripken Sr. League in the first ever Mid-Atlantic Classic, 2-1.
Three articles have appeared covering the game, so I think I'll link the articles, and share some pictures from the night. Here are the links:
CODY Clifton's article in the newsvirginian.
Staff report from the newsleader.
Article on the VL website.
On to some pictures...
On a warm, windy day in Woodstock, the Valley League all-stars gathered to run a little, try to hit home runs, and play a game.
The festivities started at 5:30 with the home run derby. Now, the first thing that must be understood is that the wind was blowing in, stiffly, against hitters- seemingly against both lefties and righties. Therefore, very few home runs were hit; in fact, just three. In the first round, each hitter received seven swings. The top advancers received 5 more in the second round.
Results from round 1:
Mike Schwartz, Harrisonburg: 0
Kevin Deese, Fauquier: 0
Zach Helgeson, New Market: 0
James Roche, Front Royal: 0
Sanchez Gartman, New Market: 0
Steve Sabins, Winchester: 0
Todd Brazeal, Staunton: 1
Daniel Bowman, Luray: 0
Jared Simon, Front Royal: 0
Ryan Durrence, Covington: 0
Steve McQuail, Front Royal: 1
Matt Blow, Woodstock: 0
Twelve players took seven swings (that's 84 total), with only 2 home runs. Brazeal and McQuail moved to round 2:
Todd Brazeal: 0
Steve McQuail: 1
Ladies and gentleman, the 2009 All-Star Game Home Run Derby Champion is Steve McQuail!
Another fun thing that I worked on throughout the game is getting the highest radar reading for each pitcher. This meant that I was able to sit with the scouts right behind home plate, and, just like last year, listened to, and participated in, some great conversations about player development and scouting procedure.
Here's the best fastball each pitcher recorded:
Ian Marshall, Woodstock: 94
Eric Alessio, New Market: 93
Matt Benedict, Haymarket: 91
Heith Hatfield, Woodstock: 89
David Gibson, Staunton: 84
Greg VanSickler, Front Royal: 89
Matthew Shepherd, Waynesboro: 93
BJ Martin, Fauquier: 87
Cassidy McDaniel, Covington: 87
Grant Sasser, Haymarket: 84
Tyler Sanders, Luray: 89
Alan Watts, Rockbridge: 90
Tyler Truxell, Luray: 88
David Hayes, Fauquier: 85
Chris Enourato, Waynesboro: 91
DJ Hicks, Luray: 92
Jack Leathersich, Haymarket: 91
Chris Sorce, Harrisonburg: 94 (Seattle's crosschecker was there to see Chris- the Mariners drafted Sorce this year)
Guido Knudson, Woodstock: 90
Brian Burgess, New Market: 86
I realize that this is a day late and a dollar short, but this is what happened Friday afternoon:
Ugliness.
Yeah, it was pretty ugly, but that was mostly just the defense (8 errors!). If you enjoy hitting, this game was for you!
George Mason came in at 39-9, with one win to go to set the school record. JMU was 29-23, in the midst of a battle for one of the last seeds in the CAA tournament.
JMU sent their ace, Turner Phelps (Covington 08), while Mason started Mike Modica (Haymarket 07). Phelps had a 8-1 record, while Modica was 9-1.
Mason leaped out to a 4-0 lead in the first, after an Scott Krieger (Haymarket 08) 2-run double and Mark Hill 2-run home run. JMU answered right back, however, with 4 of their own. Two runs scored on a wild pitch and error on catcher Chris Henderson, Matt Browning (Staunton 08) singled in the third run, and Mike Fabiaschi doubled in the fourth.
Both pitchers settled down until the fourth, when Mason's Ryan Uphouse ("up" is better than a different preposition I could think of) singled in two runs, giving the Patriots a 6-4 lead, a lead they would not relinquish.
Mason added a run in the 5th on a Brent Weiss (New Market 08) double, two more in the 6th on a monster Justin Bour (I'm pretty sure Justin was coming to the Valley at one point, but went somewhere else instead) home run, and then the floodgates opened with four more in the 7th, and three more in the 9th on a Ryan Soares (Haymarket 08) home run. JMU added a single run in the 6th and 7th, the latter on a Alex Foltz (Luray 08) solo home run. That all tallies up to a 16-6 Mason victory.
Phelps labored through 6 innings, allowing 13 hits, 12 runs (only 5 earned), 4 walks, and 8 strikeouts. He threw a staggering 142 pitches. Modica threw 7 innings, allowing 6 hits, 6 runs (5 earned), 2 walks, and 9 strikeouts (5 of them looking!).
Just for fun:
Click on the image to see just how much a mess this game was to score. I have asterisks next to Valley League players, except for Brent Weiss- I missed him, even though he was on my list. And I switched the pitch counts, too: Phelps threw 142, Modica 109.
More thoughts:
Friday's game between George Mason and JMU had a little bit of everything. Unfortunately, I'm out of time at the moment, so I will plan on posting a game story Sunday. Right now, enjoy some of my pictures from the game...
Anna Kipps is an uber-New Market Rebels, and baseball in general, fan. She sent me the following report of a game she attended over the weekend. I'll have to speak to Anna about these chocolate chip cookies... JLL
So, on this lovely Saturday, my siblings Lizzy and Andrew and I decided to drive down to Lynchburg to catch a double header of the Lynchburg College Hornets vs. The Randolph Macon College Yellow Jackets. It really was a great day for baseball. The temperature was in the 50s, but the sun was bright and warm.
The games were very entertaining. The first game was 7 innings, and Lynchburg shut out Randolph Macon 7-0. The game was only about 1 hour and 20 minutes long! The second game was more competitive, and I thought the Yellow Jackets would have a chance, but Lynchburg again pulled out the win with a score of 8-3.
Our reasons for going to the game, besides of course to enjoy some baseball, was to check out the new coaches for the 2009 New Market Rebels. Lucas Jones, the assistant coach for Randolph Macon, is going to be the head coach, while Corey Paluga, the assistant for Lynchburg, is going to be the assistant coach for New Market this year. We also had the added benefit of getting to see the former Rebel catcher Ryan Litz (who went 2-3 for Lynchburg in game 2!) and the 2002 championship-winning Rebel head coach Ray Hedrick, who is now the head coach at Randolph Macon.
After the game we enjoyed saying "hi" to Coach Hedrick, who surprisingly remembered us. We also got to chat with Lucas Jones and Corey Paluga. They are both looking forward to spending the summer in New Market. Some of their anticipation might be due to the fact that they'll get to eat lots of my chocolate chip cookies once they get here, but I think they're also excited to get in and coach some baseball and to learn what its like to be a part of the Rebel family!
