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By Josiah SchulzThis season, the Elkton Blue Sox have become infamous for being “the team to never count out”, with many of their wins coming from deep deficits very early in the game. For example: Elkton’s comeback victory against the former #1 team in the league Clover Hill Bucks, who held an 8-0 lead in the first 4 innings of the game. Even when the Sox do not finish the game with a victory, they always seem to make some sort of magnificent comeback run to give the opposing team a run for their money. Another example: Elkton’s 6-5 comeback loss against the former #1 Broadway Bruins.
The first three innings of the ballgame (as per ritual, it would seem) would turn out to be a living nightmare for the hosting Blue Sox. Elkton would allow a grand total of 14 runs, 9 of which would come strictly from walks. “We completely walked ourselves out of the game.” Said Blue Sox coach Dave Loker. “When you get down by such a huge deficit, not only is it hard on the team, but it’s especially hard for the players in the field. None of the pitches made contact with the ball, it was just walk after walk… That’ll tend to lul the defence to sleep as well. If we would have not allowed so many walks, it would have actually been a decent ballgame.” With the exception of a pair of exciting home runs from J.J. Loker and Will Decker, there would be no late-game magic tricks pulled out of the Blue Sox’s hats tonight. Elkton would walk 13 Diamondbacks tonight; a number even the proud Blue Sox fan base would not be able to muster their mass encouragement like usual. “We had too many walks. Bottom line. Gave up too many free bases, made a couple mistakes in the field, and from there things just kind of began to snowball out of control.” Said outfielder and fan-favorite J.J. Loker. “Once you dig yourself in a hole like that, it’s hard to come back.” On the flip side, this emphatic victory tonight may just be what Stuarts Draft needed to get over their regular season hump. Coming into tonight's matchup, the Diamondbacks held a league-worst 2-12 record. However, this record would certainly not reflect the consistent stellar individual performances by right fielder Terrell Thompson. Thompson would contribute 3 runs and an RBI in Stuarts Draft’s dominant 16-4 victory over the Blue Sox. “Me as an ‘old guy’, I’m trying to lead by example for the most part, but I tend to get on myself a lot.” Said Thompson, who is playing his 4th season with the Diamondbacks. “I know my worth as a player. I felt like tonight I could have played better, but my teammates really had my back. I can’t perform every single game, so some guys stepped big time up tonight in the heart of our lineup. I’m glad we got this ‘W’ and I hope we can carry this on tomorrow night and Sunday.” “Our team chemistry is really, really good. Sometimes even our chemistry can be a little bit too much for a coach!” Said Diamondbacks head coach Chuck Booth with a hearty chuckle. “You know what, we’re having fun. We’re better than a 3-12 team. They know that and I know that. We’ve played a lot of close ball games this season. Almost all of our games could have gone either way. Lots of games going into late innings.. Unfortunately many of them did not turn out the way we wish it should have, we hope to continue this momentum and have a disruptive playoff run. It may take us an inning, maybe two or even three, to get our hitting warmed up, so it’s important to have a short-term memory and look forward.” Despite the loss, Elkton will look to heed Stuarts Draft’s advice and forget about their 3 game losing streak, and rather focus on their game tomorrow night against the Grottoes Cardinals @ Home at 7:30 p.m. The Stuarts Draft Diamondbacks will hope that their consistent playing will show up tomorrow night as well, as the D-Backs prepare to play the 2nd best team in the league in the New Market Shockers. The game will be hosted at New Market’s Rebel Field at 7:30 p.m. Final Score: Stuarts Draft 16 - Elkton 4
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By Mitchell Broughton
Top-ranked Broadway continues to prove to the rest of the RCBL that they are the team to beat. Last night, the Bruins won their fifth straight game when they beat the Montezuma Braves 7-2 at JMU’s Eagle Field. Every team around the league has a core group of veteran players that usually lead the team. For Broadway, it is the bunch of RCBL rookies from James Madison University that have stolen the show and taken the league by storm. Last night four Dukes shined for the Bruins — Chase DeLauter, Josh Jones, Travis Reifsnider and Anthony Piccolino. Starting on the mound for Broadway was DeLauter. The lefty struck out six batters and only allowed one hit. At the plate, he continued his dominance — going 4-for-4 with two doubles and two RBIs. Chase DeLauter has gone ten straight games with at least one extra base hit and now has a league-leading batting average of .534. He is on pace for the league’s MVP, Rookie of the Year, and also a Triple Crown batting title. Josh Jones had the biggest at-bat of the night. Following a DeLauter double, Jones took a fastball from Montezuma pitcher Lance Tate over the left field wall for a two-run home run — his third homer of the year. Jones finished the game with three hits and three RBIs, putting him just behind DeLauter (30) for second-most RBIs in the RCBL with 25. Travis Reifsnider broke a dry spell of his at the plate as well when he doubled in the bottom of the seventh; he also scored twice and was fantastic behind the plate for the Bruins. Finally, the fourth JMU Duke to make an impact on last night’s game was the Bruins’ closer Anthony Piccolino. The left hander, in the final two innings, shut down the Braves’ hopes of a comeback. He struck out four and only allowed one hit, but most importantly secured the win for the first place Bruins. As a unit, Broadway out-hit Montezuma 13-5 last night. The Braves’ starting pitcher Andrew Ward tried his best to contain the high-powered offense for as long as he could, but couldn’t contain the beast for long. Broadway widens their first place lead as they improve to 13-4. The Bruins will travel to Ruritan Field to take on the Bridgewater Reds on Friday and Saturday. Montezuma falls to 6-10 and will host New Market in a makeup game tonight at Ruritan Field. FINAL: Montezuma 2 Broadway 7. Win: Bailey Hall (1-0). Loss: Lance Tate (0-2). Follow the RCBL on Twitter for more news, scores, and updates — twitter.com/RCBLonline By Leyton Pullin
On Wednesday night The Bridgewater Reds would defeat the Grottoes Cardinals 6-1 at Shifflett Field in Grottoes. Austin Nicely and Liam Grubbs would get the start for their respective clubs and would both toss great starts but get no run support. Nicely would go 6 innings and strike out 6 and would allow only 4 hits and 0 runs for the Cardinals. Nicely would face a few jams especially one in his last inning of work in the 6th as the bases would get loaded and then he would make a play at the plate to save a run and would get a fly out to Isaiah Blanks to get out of it. Grubbs would go 4.2 innings striking out 8 and allowing 1 hit and 0 runs for the Reds. Grubbs would find himself in a similar situation in the 2nd inning as the bases would load up but then he would sit down Matt Curry and Jacob Merica on strikes. Nicely would be replaced by Bridgewater Eagle Elijah Dunlap who would work through a rough 7th inning but would allow 0 runs. Then in the 8th he would not get so lucky. George Laase would single and then Jonathan Sexton would crush a two run home run to give the Reds a 2-0 lead. Adam Dofflemeyer would come in to pitch for the Cardinals after the home run and would give up two more making the score 4-0 Bridgewater. Nick Griffin would take over for Liam Grubbs and would work through the 8th with no hits and no runs allowed. In the top of the 9th Tyler Pullin would come in to pitch for Grottoes. Bridgewater would tag on 2 more runs on a Corbin Lucas RBI single and a George Laase RBI double. Pullin would get out of the inning with 3 straight strikeouts. Grottoes would put up a fight in the bottom of the 9th with 2 outs as Isiah Blanks would reach on a dropped fly ball by Grey Sherfy. Blanks would later score on a Luke Wheeler RBI single. Wheeler would be put out on a fielder's choice and that would end the game with a final score of 6-1 for the Reds. The Reds move to 9-7 after a big win over Grottoes led by a 2 run home run(1) by Bridgewater Eagle Jonathan Sexton. Sexton has worked multiple 10+ pitch at bats on the night and credited that to his defensive catching style behind the plate. “It allows me to see my hitting from a different standpoint. I think how would I pitch myself.” Sexton and the Reds also had a standout performance from George Laase who went 4 for 5 with an RBI. The Reds will be back at it as they host the Bruins(13-4) on Friday in Montezuma. Grottoes drops to 8-8 with the loss to Bridgewater. The Cardinals continued to struggle to get the bats going as they had a single hit in the first 8 innings of the game until they had back to back singles in the bottom of the 9th. Elijah Dunlap gets the loss(1-1) for the Cardinals. Grottoes will be back in action Friday night as they travel to Buck Bowman Park to take on the Clover Hill Bucks (9-6).  By Megan Phelps
Jerry Will has been with the Clover Hill Bucks for over 30 years now. He has been on the board since the late 1980s and acts as treasurer. Jerry has been grilling at Clover Hill for the past 19 years. If fans go to the ballpark, they will see a long grill that Jerry has built himself. After the first year of grilling, he went to Walmart and customized his grill to be made long, so he did not have to reach behind burgers and accidently burn himself. The slab in the front part of the grill, is made from an old scrap of metal that was originally made for an elevator. That piece works perfectly as a workstation right in front of the grill. He also customized it to do other meats, besides just burgers. It is tall enough to do beer can chicken and has grates that can cook pork loin. Jerry has been grilling for Clover Hill for 19 years, and in that time, he calculated that he has made about 60,000 burgers. He averages that he has made 3,200 burgers a year. He is especially proud of the people he works with, his family. His wife, daughter, and grandsons help run the concession stand. He says that contributes to the family atmosphere they like to promote. He enjoys going out of his way to meet the new players for Clover Hill, whether that be after game fist bumps, or picnics. Clover Hill’s field was made in a span of two months in 1954. The first meeting was May 1st, 1954 where the board had agreed to build the park. Jerry jokes that nowadays it would take 6 months to get Rockingham County to even approve of building a ballpark. Jerry says that most of the poles seen around the stadium were dug and put up by family members of the community of Clover Hill. We had to ask… who has the better burger, Montezuma’s McNett Burger or Clover Hill’s Buck Burger? His response was, “I don’t like to compete, we’ve been doing the same burger for years. When you do 60,000 burgers you don’t want to change. But you know what? They have a darn good burger at Montezuma, and we have a good burger too.” Jerry wraps up the interview by saying, “Family is represented by us, the board, and the community of Clover Hill.” By Mitchell Broughton
There are definitely advantages to playing on turf. Rainfall and lightning strikes around the Valley cancelled the majority of RCBL games yesterday, but after a delayed start, the Broadway Bruins defeated the Clover Hill Bucks for the first time this season, 9-6, at JMU’s Eagle Field. Adam Riggleman started the game on the mound for the Bruins. The Broadway right hander came into last night’s action leading the league with a 0.58 ERA in 15 innings pitched. In his short appearance, Riggleman struck out three batters and only allowed one hit. Lightning struck again and the game was delayed for another half hour, Riggleman did not take the mound again that night. Relieving him was JMU lefty Liam McDonnell. McDonnell came and pitched a solid performance after a pause in the action. In three innings he amassed five strikeouts, gave up three hits, and allowed three runs to score. Coming into save the game for the Bruins was reigning Pitcher of the Year John Judy. Judy, in four innings, did his best to keep the awakening Clover Hill offense at rest. He gave up four hits and three runs but regained composure when it was the most important and got out of a jam in the top of the ninth to secure the Broadway win. On the offensive side, Chase DeLauter continues to dominate on his path to the league’s MVP and maybe even a Triple Crown. In the bottom of the first DeLauter took a Sam Ewald fastball over the wall in right field for a two-run home run to open up the scoring for Broadway. DeLauter finished the game with two hits, the other being a double, and two RBIs. He currently leads the RCBL in batting average (.500), home runs (9), and RBIs (29). After the rain delay in the bottom of the second, Bruins first baseman Natty Solomon hit their second home run of the game, a two-run shot as well. Solomon finished the game with two hits and three RBIs/ Trent Abernathy also went yard for Broadway. His three-run blast over the left field fence increased their lead to 7-3 heading into the fifth inning. Bryce Strawderman also got in on the action. The second baseman had two hits of his own to go along with two more RBIs. Clover Hill didn’t let the early lead take them out of the game. The Bucks scored two runs in the top of the seventh to make the score 9-5 heading into the final two innings. They even had a chance to tie the game up with bases loaded in the top of the ninth before John Judy got Broadway out of that jam. Ross French and Blake Sipe both had doubles and finished the game with two hits for the Bucks. Five Clover Hill batters had RBIs in last night’s contest (French, Sipe, Bocock, Navedo and Shifflett), but the team effort wasn’t enough to complete the regular season sweep over the top-ranked Bruins. Broadway remains in first, improving to 12-4 on the season. They will host Montezuma back at Eagle Field tonight. Clover Hill falls to 9-6 on the year and they will have to travel to Stuarts Draft this evening to get back on track. FINAL: Clover Hill 6 Broadway 9. Win: Liam McDonnell (2-0). Loss: Sam Ewald (1-1). Save: John Judy (1st of season). Follow the RCBL on Twitter for more news, scores, and updates — twitter.com/RCBLonline By Leyton Pullin
On a night that saw many games across the RCBL postponed before they began the Stuarts Draft Diamondbacks and the Elkton Blue Sox would get underway as scheduled. Stuarts Draft would get the scoring started in the bottom of the 1st as Terrell Thompson would reach on a walk and then get driven in by a Kent Rooklin RBI single making the score 1-0 D-Backs. Elkton would respond as Tristin Gordon would reach on a walk then score on a Carson Atkins RBI single tying the game at 1-1. Elkton would tack on 3 runs in the 5th as Lee Carneal would score on a J.J.Loker RBI single and Loker would later score on a 2 run home run by Gordon making the score 4-1 Blue Sox. Elkton would score two more in the 6th as Carson Atkins and Koyce Quintanlla would score making it 6-1 Elkton. Stuarts Draft would strike back in the 6th starting with a Cody Bartley solo home run. Tyler Wilcher would hit an RBI double off the wall and drive in Bob Funk and Tanner Morris would hit a 2RBI double to score Williams and Funk to make the score 6-5 Elkton. Jack Pausic would tie the game up with a solo home run to left field in the 7th to make the score 6-6. The 8th would go by quick but then lightning would strike and we would go into a lightning delay. After a 36 minute delay pushed the time to just past 10:30 and due to a curfew in the neighborhood where the Diamond Club is located the game was called and postponed with the score tied 6-6 in the top of the 9th with a runner on first as Wil Decker would reach on a no out single before lightning would strike. The game will be finished on Friday July 24th before the two teams square off again at Stonewall Memorial Park in Elkton. Stuarts Draft will be back in action on Wednesday as the host the Clover Hill Bucks (9-5) at 7:30. Elkton will also be back in action Wednesday as they host New Market (10-5) at Stonewall Memorial Park. By Mitchell Broughton
Last year’s champions had lost their last couples games and dropped out of first place heading into Sunday night’s contest. Clover Hill bounced back, looking as good as they ever have, to dominate the second place New Market Shockers 11-1 in eight innings. Having won the first meeting handedly 11-3 back during the League’s opening weekend, the Shockers walked onto the field at Buck Bowman Park feeling confident that their young ace Hunter Enstminger could silence the Bucks fans on hand. In their first meeting, Enstminger gave up no hits and only three walks, but last night Clover Hill’s offense was ready. The James Madison pitcher struggled in his three innings on the mound. He allowed seven hits, five walks, and five runs while only striking out two. On the other side, fan-favorite Nick Corbin had a much better evening. The right hander out of Bridgewater College lasted six innings and gave up the lone Shockers’ run while striking out four and walking one batter. Relieving him in the seventh, Sam Imeson closed out the game for the Bucks, giving up no hits and striking out two. Clover Hill’s defense was stellar on Sunday night, playing a “perfect” game with no errors. Third baseman Kevin Navedo and shortstop Grant Painter were especially excellent in the field for the Bucks, creating a few highlight-worthy plays in the infield. Blake Sipe drove in a game-high two runs for the Bucks on just one hit. Most of the runs scored for Clover Hill were handed to them off of careless errors by the New Market defense. Tyler Bocock’s solo shot over the left field wall at Buck Bowman punctuated the game and solidified the victory over the Shockers. That was Bocock’s fourth home run of the season; he finished the game with two hits, leading the Bucks. New Market falls to 9-5 and is now in a tie for second place in the league with Clover Hill. The Shockers will travel to Stuarts Draft tonight for a make-up game versus the Diamondbacks. Clover Hill bounces back from a losing streak and gets revenge against the Shockers to improve to 9-5 as well. The Bucks will travel to JMU’s Eagle Field to try and complete the season sweep over the top-ranked Broadway Bruins on Tuesday night. FINAL (8): New Market 1 Clover Hill 11. Winning pitcher: Nick Corbin (2-0). Losing pitcher: Hunter Entsminger (1-2). Follow the RCBL on Twitter for more news, scores, and updates — twitter.com/RCBLonline By Mitchell Broughton
The Broadway Bruins extended their first place lead heading into the final week of regular season play in 2020 following two wins in a doubleheader against Elkton 11-3 and 3-0. In game one, the Blue Sox not only had to put up with the near hundred degree heat index but also the offensive onslaught from the Bruins. Broadway racked up 12 hits in the seven innings of play off of Elkton pitcher RJ Payne, seven of those being extra base hits. Chase DeLauter was 4-for-4 with three doubles, a triple, and four RBIs. John Judy also tripled and drove in a run for one of his two hits in game one. Eight out of the nine batters for Broadway reached base at least once. Trent Abernathy and Adam Riggleman impressively comboed to strike out eight while only allowing five hits and giving up one walk for the Bruins. Elkton pitcher RJ Payne pitched a complete, seven-inning game for the Blue Sox but only struck out four batters compared to the twelve hits and three walks he let up. It wasn’t just Payne’s fault, though. The Blue Sox defense had many crucial errors that let in a few runs early in the game. Lee Carneal had one of the few impressive individual performances in the first game for the Sox, going 3-for-3 with two doubles and a two-run home run. The second game in the doubleheader was not able to go the full seven innings due to lightning in the area surrounding JMU’s Eagle Field. Play was suspended at the top of the sixth inning and the game was ultimately decided to be called there by both managers. After five complete innings, the Bruins narrowly beat the Blue Sox for the second time that night 3-0. Chase DeLauter hit his league-best eighth home run of the season in the bottom of the first for Broadway. He finished the night with five hits, three doubles, a triple, a home run, and five RBIs. The James Madison Duke has been one of the most impressive players thus far this season in the RCBL. DeLauter is a statistical maverick, leading the league in batting average (.490), hits (25), home runs (8), extra base hits (17), and RBIs (27). To add to that resume, he’s also pitched 11 innings where he struckout 13 batters and gave up only seven hits. If I had a vote, DeLauter would be my pick for MVP right now. There is still a lot of baseball left to be played though, and as we’ve seen so far just about anything can happen in this league. Broadway sits atop of the league at 11-4 and will take the field again on Tuesday July 21 when they host Clover Hill at Eagle Field. Elkton falls to 5-10 on the season but will have an opportunity to pick up an important win at Stuarts Draft Tuesday as well. FINAL: (Game 1) Elkton 3 Broadway 11. Winning pitcher: Trent Abernathy (2-1). Losing pitcher: RJ Payne (0-1). FINAL (5): (Game 2) Elkton 0 Broadway 3. Winning pitcher: Brett Whiteman (2-1). Losing pitcher: Carrson Atkins (1-1). By Leyton Pullin
The Broadway Bruins would defeat the Stuarts Draft Diamondbacks in a home run filled contest 12-11 on Friday night at the Diamond Club. Stuart’s Draft would get on the board first as former Wahoo Tanner Morris would rip a two strike pitch over the left field fence for a solo home run giving the D-Backs a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Broadway would strike back in the top of the 2nd as Natty Solomon would fly out to center field and Tyler Ault would score, tying the game 1-1. Broadway wouldn’t wait long to break the tie as Chase Delauter would hit a 2 run home run to give the Bruins a 3-1 lead in the top of the 3rd. The Bruins weren’t done as Josh Jones would hit a solo home run to give the Bruins a 4-1 lead. The Bruins would add on 2 more in the 5th as Josh Jones would hit another solo home run, his second of the game, and Cole Holsinger would score from third on a overthrow by the catcher giving the Bruins a 6-1 lead. The D-Backs would respond as Kent Rooklin would score making the score 6-2. The Bruins would put up 3 more in the 6th as Travis Reifsnider would score and then Tyler Ault would hit a 2 RBI single to give the Bruins a 9-2 lead. Stuart’s Draft would stop the bleeding as Cody Bartley would hit a solo home run off the top of the fence to make the score 9-3. The D-Backs would put up another run in the bottom of the 7th as Jack Pausic would hit a Sac Fly to score Kent Rooklin making the score 9-4. The Bruins would strike back on the first pitch of the 8th as Chase Delauter would hit an absolute bomb to right field making the score 10-4. The bottom of the 8th would be the coming out party for the D-Backs as they would put up 6 runs including a Cody Bartley Grand Slam that would tie the game 10-10. The Bruins would bounce back and put up two runs in the top of the 9th off of a 2RBI single by Josh Jones giving the Bruins a 12-10 lead. Stuarts Draft would not give up as Tanner Morris would score bringing the deficit down to just one run. Bob Funk would strike out tho to end the game giving the Bruins the win. For Broadway they improve to 9-4 thanks to the long ball. “When you have two guys in the lineup that hit double dingers that’s pretty strong,” said Bruins Manager Chip Abernathy. Of course Abernathy was talking about Chase Delauter and Josh Jones who both had two home runs and combined for 7 of the team's 12 runs and 7 RBIs. Broadway will host Elkton(5-8) in a double header on Saturday at JMU starting at 5pm. For the D-Backs they drop to 2-9 on the year. Cody Bartley would put up 2 home runs along with 6 RBIs to help the D-Backs as they lost in another stunner. Stuarts Draft will get a chance to bounce back in a doubleheader Saturday night against a struggling Grottoes Cardinals team who has lost 5 in a row. When asked about getting possible revenge for their walkoff defeat at the hands of the Cardinals early in the year, Manager Les Sandridge was more concerned about just getting a win,”Not really payback, just looking for a win. We’re on the bubble, we just need to get over it.” The double header is set to start at 5pm at the Diamond Club. By Mitchell Broughton
Friday night marked the third and final regular season meeting between the Bridgewater Reds and Montezuma Braves. Bridgewater, having won the first two meetings 9-4 and 8-6, came into the game with an attitude portrayed perfectly by manager Robert Sherfey. “Do not give them a chance to make this a game,” Sherfey said in his pregame speech to his team. “Take it to them every single inning.” The Reds did just that. Bridgwater defeated Montezuma handedly 10-3, completing the sweep. Making his third start of the 2020 season, Bridgewater College right hander Hunter Mohr took the mound for the Reds. While not dominating on his own, Mohr utilized his defense to keep the Braves in check. In a little over five innings he allowed seven hits, three runs, but struck out three in the path to his first win of the year. On the mound for Montezuma was Jacob Haney out of William & Mary. Primarily playing mostly in the infield for the Braves this season, Haney, also in his third appearance, struckout nine batters but gave up nine hits and five runs for the Braves. In the top of the second, Bridgewater opened up their scoring with back to back home runs by Tyler Mahone and George Laase. Jacob Grabeel and Mason Mitchell’s singles later in the inning drove in two more runs, increasing Bridgewater’s lead early to 4-1. Grabeel finished the game with three hits, two of them being doubles to go along with three RBIs. Catcher Jonathan Sexton also had three hits and two doubles of his own, and drove in two more runs for the Reds. Bridgewater, now 8-6, rides their three-game win streak up to New Market tonight for an important game against the Shockers. Montezuma falls to 5-9 and will try to pull off an upset when they host the Clover Hill Bucks tonight at Ruritan Park. FINAL: Bridgewater 10 Montezuma 3. Winning pitcher: Hunter Mohr (1-0). Losing pitcher: Jacob Haney (0-2). — Around the County League: A Jose Rocha grand slam in the bottom of the eighth propels Elkton to an upset over Clover Hill 10-9. Rocha finished with two hits, two home runs, and seven RBIs for the Blue Sox. Chase DeLauter and Josh Jones each homered twice in a 12-11 win over Stuarts Draft. Jones went 4-for-4 with four RBIs. DeLauter’s home run totals improve to seven on the season, continuing his lead in the RCBL. Follow the RCBL on Twitter for more news, scores, and updates — twitter.com/RCBLonline |
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