Central – Woodstock is a perfect 12-0 in road games after upsetting Fort Defiance Wednesday night at Page County is 10-2 at home.
Both teams know that they will be playing Softball next week in the Class 2 State Tournament so there’s no added pressure there other than the winner gets to host their next game while the team that falls short will travel halfway across the Commonwealth.
The Elite Eight is now set and today and tomorrow we find out which teams get to avoid a long Bus 🚌 ride next week.
Central – Page County III has the makings of a instant classic…
Shenandoah – Ava Marshall crushed a Home Run and Kahlei Shifflett scored on a RBI double from Madison Phares to lead Page County High School to a 2-1 victory over visiting Strasburg Wednesday night. Freshman pitcher Summer Pence took care of the rest with a 13 strikeout, one hitter and now PCHS (20-3) is headed once again to the State Tournament.
Central – Woodstock edged Fort Defiance 5-2 in the other semifinal game and now the #3 seed Falcons will challenge the #1 seeded Lady Panthers for the Regional Championship Thursday night.
Strasburg’s Ava Mayhew limited Page County to just seven hits and recorded nine strikeouts across her six innings of work. The junior would have celebrated a victory more often than not with those stats but the night belonged to Page County.
Both teams committed just one error behind their pitchers and Page County closed out the contest with two stellar defensive plays. Mayhew led off the seventh inning with a line shot that handcuffed Caelyn Lucas but the freshman stayed with the play, nipping Mayhew at first base. One out later, Kaitlyn Cunningham sent a line shot to centerfield that hung up long enough for Marshall to squeeze in her glove for the final out.
Shifflett led the offense by going 3 for 3 and the Junior plated what would prove to be the winning run 🏃♂️ in the top of the third inning, thanks to Phares.
The second straight pitchers duel in Region play once again showcased the strong suit of the Lady Panthers Softball. Strong pitching, solid defense and timely hitting is the staple of the veteran Skipper and his team over the decades. PCHS edged Stuarts Draft 3-1 in the opening round and will now face another familiar face when Central – Woodstock comes to town.
Central (20-2) and Page County split their games in the regular season with each team winning on the others home field. Back on April 2nd, Central handed Page a 6-4 loss that dropped the Lady Panthers to a mark of 3-3. On April 29th Page County edged the Falcons 2-1, a victory that is part of the teams 17 game winning streak.
The best part of this trilogy is that both teams will advance to the Class 2 State Tournament after the trophy 🏆 presentation Thursday night 🌙.
It’s a brisk 91° degrees here in the Shenandoah Valley, three hours before the first pitch. This means, no jacket required !
If Strasburg sounds familiar to long term readers its because I spend a decade covering both of these Schools around the time I started our feel good Blog.
The Rams 🐏 are Coached by Suzanne Mathias, the same young lady 👩 that coached the Volleyball 🏐 Rams that were the subject of our second book 📖 entitled ” A Season of a Lifetime “.
Going to a ballpark when its Good versus Good is always a Blast ! Alan F Knight Field at the Lady Panthers Softball Complex sounds like a place that I would like to hang out, even though most people shortened the name a smidgen.
Dennis Zimmerman will be in The 🏠!Coach Knight hanging out with some quality folks down in North Carolina.Coach and the Author of the VHSL Hall of Fame packet out on Orcas Island 🏝Pappy Meade is trying hard to hide in the back but he should be very visible tonight!Pretty sure that Big Daddy will play a role in the outcome.The PavillionIn just a bit we will hear the two greatest words in all of Sports, Play Ball !
The Burcham BunchCorrie DelpBrendan FarissHome for the Super Regionals !!!
While both Delp and Fariss have this weekend to look forward to up in Lynchburg, the Burcham Bunch still has one more victory to secure to join them in the State Tournament category.
Northside High School comes to The Hill tonight, one night after Carroll County stormed back not once but twice Monday night against a determined Knights team from Cave Spring.
Following the 9-8 victory, where Carroll County High overcame 4-0 and 7-5 deficits, Head Coach Casey Burcham commented about his gritty group.
” I’m really proud of how we battled back tonight. I thought we looked like the 10 days off bothered us early. But these kids work so hard.
A lot of credit to the coaching staff tonight. They made some key suggestions that benefited us greatly.”
As far as Duke University hosting its first ever baseball ⚾️ Super Regional, the Blue Devils needed two substantial upsets to take place and they both did. Duke pulled out the University of Georgia Regional by defeating Oklahoma State and then they needed some help in the opposite bracket. Enter Murray State and now the games will be played in Durham !
Wednesday night in Shenandoah, Page County High School Softball will host Strasburg in the Region 2B semifinal with the winner advancing to State.
Exciting stuff happening with locations of The Hill, Liberty University, Shenandoah and Durham over the coming days.
Yesterday it was all about Carroll County High School 🏫 Tennis up at Hollins University. Here’s the link for that one.
Friday – State Track 👣 and Field, Duke Baseball ➕ hopefully 🙏 Carroll County Baseball
Saturday – Duke Baseball ⚾️
The BoardThe Regional Final Four
Exciting stuff happening across the area, beginning with tonight on The Hill as the Burcham Bunch looks to reach a place that every team dreams about the first day of practice each Spring….
A.S.P.N on The Hill 