Region 2B or not to 2B, in a Shakespeare tone of voice – its almost time for the Lady Panthers to host the Strasburg Rams with a trip to State on the line !

It’s a brisk 91Β° 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 πŸ‘© that coached the Volleyball 🏐 Rams that wereΒ  the subject of our second book πŸ“– 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 Pavillion
In just a bit we will hear the two greatest words in all of Sports, Play Ball !

Welcome πŸ™ to Tuesday morning πŸŒ„ where the Cavaliers still have the Burcham Bunch, Corrie Delp and Brendan Fariss representing The Hill ! Plus Duke University is set to host its very first Super Regional versus Murray State !! Finally, Alan Knight is also one win away…

The Burcham Bunch
Corrie Delp
Brendan Fariss
Home 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.

Carroll County Tennis finished up their seasons at Hollins University but know that our Cavaliers went down swinging.

Tuesday night – Carroll County Baseball

Wednesday night – Page County Softball

Friday – State Track πŸ‘£ and Field, Duke Baseball βž• hopefully πŸ™ Carroll County Baseball

Saturday – Duke Baseball ⚾️

The Board
The 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….

Alan F Knight Field was a place of Joy last night as Page County High School Softball holds off Stuarts Draft 3-1 for a 16th straight win. Lady Panthers to host Strasburg on Wednesday evening for a spot in the Class 2 State Tournament.

Shenandoah – The four top seeds in Region 2B Softball all took care of business Monday night, setting up a pair of showdowns for Wednesday. Page County(19-3) pushed its winning streak to 16 straight by holding off visiting Stuart Draft 3-1, setting up a third meeting of the season versus Strasburg on Wednesday.

The old saying that its difficult to beat the same team three times in the same season played out against the Cougars.  Page County had swept the regular season series by scores of 13-1 and 9-3 but Monday night πŸŒ™ the knockout punch eluded the Lady Panthers.

This time around a good ole fashioned pitchers duel developed as Draft sent its Shenandoah District pitcher of the year to face PCHS. The Lady Panthers have plated 215 runs to this point (against 58 allowed) but three would prove to be enough to survive and advance, thanks to its own stellar pitching staff.

The semifinal contest with Strasburg will be another trilogy as the Rams 🐏 played PCHS tough twice during the regular season. The Lady Panthers prevailed 4-2 and 6-0 in the first two contests.

Suzanne Mathias and Alan Knight have been coaching against each other for decades now, in both Volleyball and Softball. When they get together Wednesday night at Alan F Knight Field there will be a little bit extra on the line as the winner πŸ† this time punches a ticket 🎟 to the State Tournament !

#2 Fort Defiance and #3 Central Woodstock will square up in the other semifinal contest.

Alan Knight, Chris Carter and Marion Harris .

Odds and ends on a rainy Saturday afternoon. Happy Senior Day Weekend to Miss Maddie Gordon (Page County High School) and her Penn State teammates ❀, Welcome πŸ™ Home Bill Gallimore and some Love for the Shawn & Jon Show!

Maddie Gordon had a record setting four year career under Alan Knight at Page County High School Lady Panthers. It doesn’t seem possible that she is getting ready to graduate from Penn State University.

Nicknamed ” Big Country ” by her Nittany Lion teammates because the town of Shenandoah, Virginia doesn’t stretch much further than Laurel Fork.

The younger of the Gordon sisters has been an amazing ambassador for the game of Softball and in her representation of Page County, Virginia !

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Welcome πŸ™ Home to Bill( and Linda) Gallimore! Bill has been on a month long Fishing 🎣 and Fellowship retreat with some near and dear friends but he’s back in town. Ready to return to cheering on the Cavaliers and also already looking forward to the trip next year.

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Coaches Shawn Montgomery and Jon Delp

Β Β  Gone but not forgotten could be the tag for the folks that coach up our Track and Field teams. While the bleacher project made the Soccer ⚽️ home schedules quite the challenge, it eliminated the opportunity for T & F to perform on their Home track πŸ‘£.

This creates a challenge for a Senior Day ceremony for the group but there’s hope they can sneak in with one of the other seven teams that will be holding one in the coming weeks.

We truly appreciate πŸ™ the efforts of our duo. One teaches Social Studies and coaches three Cross Country teams while the other wears a badge to protect us in addition to keeping up with a household full of daughters.

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In closing, what does a hard working Lawn Boy πŸ‘¦, a mechanically challenged Paper Boy and a sudden β›ˆπŸŒ©βš‘ storm equal =???

  The answer is getting to share a laugh with ones fellow Laurel Forkian ( I think I just made that word up) about two people not bright enough to come in out of the storm. The world 🌎 is a better place with Kris Richardson in it, even if its just long enough to laugh at each other.