Another great night at the ball park ! June 12,2008

Plenty of cool things to report in the ATV-60 wrap- up for Thursday June 12,2008. Lets start out by sharing the great news that John Leonard posted earlier on his sight (All Things Valley League) about the feature story from the Daily News Record. Teresa posted it to the Turks home page pretty quick and it is a great read about the hard work our friend does every day for the love of the game!

Rebecca and I were down at Bulldog Field for the tilt between Harrisonburg and Luray. Before the game started I was able to help coordinate a five minute celebration of the season just completed by the LHS Bulldogs (26-2). The crowd was great and thanks to some help from both Luray skipper Mike Bocock and majority owner Bill Turner the tribute went off without a hitch.
I thanked Bob Wease over the PA for allowing the first pitch to be delayed for five minutes while I introduced the players one by one. By my count we had 19 of the 21 total players/coaches and staff! Rebecca took some pictures of the ceremony and we will be posting them later tonight or early tomorrow. We also collected the player profiles that we passed out to the kids before the trip to Radford and we are looking forward to posting them in the coming days.

The Turks jumped out to a 3-0 lead on Luray (7-3) after two innings but the Wranglers fought back to score the final five runs of the contest. Jeremy Cruz (Stetson/ Luray '07) was in uniform for the first time after arriving earlier in the day. The crowd (423 people) was excited to have Jeremy back as was the P.A guy. Cruz sent a 2 strike pitch over the wall in straight away center to cut the Turk lead to 3-2. Catcher Corey Johnson homered late (3rd of the year) to give the Wrangler bullpen some breathing room and make a winner out of starter Travis Smink.
Luray managed to post 7 straight zeros' on the scoreboard after Harrisonburg scored in the first two innings.

Teresa and Matt Wease were both traveling with the team and Teresa helped me round up a list of the parents in town visiting the Turks and making the trip over to Luray. I hope to be able to acknowledge all of the parents and family in town for both the visitors and home team when I am working the PA @ Bulldog Field. The list of visitors included:

  • Mr. & Mrs. Castleberry (Son-Zach) were in from Pheonix and were treated to a pinch hit double by their son.
  • Don and Vickie Tutwiler (Son-Josh) made the trip over from Bridgewater
  • Mr. Larry Heatwole (Son- Daniel) made the trip up from Dayton.
Teresa also let me know that 3 families were there at the game using the free tickets they won during our visit to Memorial Stadium!

Luray had three families still in town that included:
  • Mr.Pat Kelly (Son-Clay) from Austin, Texas
  • The Jefferson family (Son- Jeff) up from Danville, Va.
  • I had a chance to speak with Mr.Leroy McClain (Son- Adam) as he headed out to the lot after the final out. Leroy is visiting with his wife Mary from Memphis,Tn. where Adam plays for the home town Tigers.
"We have been here since Monday and it has been a great experience for all of us,"McClain said. "The people here in Luray are genuine people that both love people and love baseball. It makes it easier for us to leave Adam here knowing he will have a wonderful experience."

Mr. and Mrs. McClain will remain in town for at least one more day and travel with the team up to Winchester for one more Wrangler game.

Mr. Kelly will be heading out in a few hours for a flight back to Dallas and then on to Austin. Pat, Clay and Rebecca took a day trip down to Washington & Lee and then over to UVA for a another family get together when they met Clay's cousin Staton Jobe. Jobe plays football for the Hoos and was able to visit with his cousin during the afternoon. Rebecca had the camera with her so some shots of the day might make it up later as well.

"I have been impressed by all things in Virginia, this is a great state," Pat said. "The valley is a region that lends itself to a collegiate baseball league. The volunteers and town people that roll up their sleeves to support the kids has been a big help in us having our son travel across country to play here. Years from now Clay will always remember this summer and as parents we will too."

The Dulles Airport Express will take off at 3:45 a.m. to get Pat back to Texas and we feel fortunate to have spent the past few days with him.

AROUND THE VALLEY- Staunton played at home and the Braves defeated the Winchester Royals 12-4 to leave both teams at 6-4.

Fauquier 4 @ Haymarket 2... The Gators headed north to defeat their closest neighbor and up their record to 6-3 while Haymarket dropped to 4-6.

The New Market Rebels were at home and picked up a 7-3 win over visiting Shenandoah County rival Woodstock. NM moves to 4-7 while the Riverbandits fall to 2-8.

There is still no word on Front Royal @ Covington but I do have a Covington update of a different sort. When I got home from the game I was excited to see that a Covington parent had checked in at ATV-60. Frank and Jackie Jones (Son-Alex) checked in with some kind words about our work and we will make a point to try and keep them updated on their son Alex.
Alex is listed as a sophomore at Jacksonville State and we will do our best for Mom and Dad. The Jones mentioned coming to town around the 4TH of July and we will be back in Covington on the 6TH for the All-Star contest.

Another great night around the Valley and I welcome any updates on the action played last night as well as anyone out there that has enjoyed the ride so far!

Tomorrow night has Luray @ Winchester and New Market @ Fauquier on the slate as well as 3 other contests.

I can't close out with out checking in with Maddux & Company out in San Diego. Great news for the Friars- Team Ace Jake Peavy (5-3) pitched for the first time in nearly a month after an injury. How excited were his teammates? They put up 5 runs in the first inning (the same amount of run support Greg has received over his last 5 starts) and SD cruised to a 9-0 win over the Dodger Blue.Peavy went 6 innings and allowed just 3 hits and then the bullpen closed out the 5-hit shut out. Welcome back Jake!!!

Popular posts from this blog

Time to List the Folks that we Believe In and try our Best to Show Support For : Other than the WNBA & College Bowl 🥣 Games

The Crack Staff of Anthony Barnes all have one thing in Common - Deep Ties 👔 to The Hill !