Macie Adkins – Softball @ Southwest Virginia CC

Ethan Dalton – Cross Country / Track @ E & H

Cordy Gardner – Volleyball 🏐 @ Judson College

Natalie Harris – Volleyball 🏐 @ E & H

Lily Marshall – Volleyball 🏐 @ Ferrum

Josh Tiab – Football @ E & H

The list is in the order that Principal Thompson presented the Student Athletes to the podium in the High School Library today at 2:00pm.

The part of the story that one struggles to do justice is the description of what this group of six Student Athletes went through over the years which in some cases is half their lives. The thousands of hours spent working on their games in hope that they might be fortunate enough one day to have an opportunity for part of their College education to be paid for.

Then their is the commitment level from Moms and Dads in the room. How many years, how many miles, how many practices were driven to over the years ? How many fundraisers were participated in for the travel ball costs ?

The moments created today were Priceless to the folks involved and it was an honor to witness all six of the Ceremonies and the various photo opportunities as each participant was allowed to invite their friends, families, Coaches and teammates to share in their moment.

My connection to the group of six is incredibly spread across the scale from just having watched them compete once or twice to having spent a season watching them try to develop their games in hopes of being fortunate enough to get their moment in the Sun this afternoon.

Because Marion Harris has been such a large part of my efforts here with the Sports Report I feel the most comfortable using him and his family as an example here.

Yes, I could type out that this is Natalie Harris and her parents are Marion and Shelia Harris. It simply doesn’t do justice to their story nor the effort that was put out my an entire family for a long, long time. The amount of Heart given, the numbers of bumps and bruises encountered along the journey need to be part of the story.

They constantly talk about how dew NCAA Athletes get the opportunity to turn professional. The same small percentage get to make the transition from the High School level to the College level.

Today we celebrate six of our own for having the strength and commitment to sticking with their sports of choice. Celebrate that they all did it well enough to be noticed by a College that has now invited them to become part of their next Sports family.

I will close by sharing each of the photos that I took and you will notice that some of them are duplicates of the ones above.

Six young Men and Women were celebrated today and everyone who assisted them over the years should have a great sense of Pride!

Enjoy the Moment – you all have earned it !!!

Coastal Carolina headed to the bottom of the sixth inning with Marshall University with a scoreboard full of zeros. The general consensus is that Marshall needs to win the Sun Belt Championship to secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament so the Thundering Herd were running out of outs.

Fortunately for Nester and her team, which has the third highest team batting average in the Nation, the Herd pushed across a pair of runs to take a 2-0 lead into the final inning.

Nester retired the first two batters easily and the game appeared over when the next batter hit a ground ball but it was mishandled to extend the game. Coastal plated an unearned run when the next batter doubled ahead of a walk.

The tying run was in scoring position and the potential game winning run was on base when Marshall ended the uprising by recording the final out.

Nester finished with 0 Earned Runs after allowing 3 base hits and 3 walks while striking out 9 on 125 pitches.

One victory down with two more to go but for Marshall University to claim the title they will need to get past both South Alabama and host Louisiana over the next two days. Louisiana has an outside shot at being one of the 16 host schools in the Regionals while South Alabama has a 14 game winning streak and also might need to Win it all to get an invitation to the Big Dance.

For now, Nester extends her brilliant career for at least another day! First Pitch 5pm Eastern tomorrow.

Carroll County was trailing today 5-1 headed into the bottom of the fourth inning but the Cavaliers scored the final nine runs of the contest to defeat the Buffaloes 10-5.

Faith Clontz was in the leadoff spot for Head Coach Alexis Dalton and she reached base her first four at bats in four different manors, scoring three times and driving in one as well.

Holly Miller and Kenzey McMillan both scored two runs 🏃‍♂️ for the Cavaliers and Addie Greene went the distance, earning another Win.

The final Omega Foul Ball total was 14! The photo above shows the two young ladies that assisted with the ticket 🎟 sales.

The Lady Cavaliers are set to compete in the Three Rivers District One Day Championship game next Friday evening versus Alleghany High School 🏫

Floyd County….. 012 200 0 -5

Carroll County….100 432 X – 10

Thank You for the assistance Ma’am !

2pm local time will be the First Pitch for Sydney Nester and Marshall versus Coastal. Coverage available on ESPN+.