It’s almost time ⏲️ to head to the ball field !!!!
The two decades of relationship with Lawrence ” Big Picture ” Nesselrodt has led me to a number of people who have impacted my life. John Culp is one that falls into my Pic Six list of people that God placed in my path. We lost John way too soon, and he will be the third person we acknowledge at the front of this book.
The Legendary Joe Goddard is how I introduce our Assistant Coach at each home game, and it still brings a smile to many a face ! Getting to write his story was another cross-over moment with the Graham’s at the Augusta Free Press plus it was picked up by a number of news outlets across West Virginia.
It was a night we will not soon forget. We hope you won’t, either. Thank you so much to everyone who came out and made the Dedication Celebration everything we could’ve dreamed it would be and more. Congratulations, again, to Coach Knight and to all the generations of softball playing Lady Panthers who now have a field they can be proud to call home.
The third time will indeed prove to be the charm for Skipper Lawrence Nesselrodt and his West Virginia Tech Golden Bears. After losing two dates to Mother Nature, the Golden Bears will take the field today at 2:00 versus the Cougars of Cincinatti-Clermont.
The 250 mile journey is in the books and game time is less than 4 hours away…
Noon – Now that the weather has finally broken WVT will be playing at home five of the next eight days with four of the five days being double headers.
Sunday – DH with U of C – Claremont 12 & 3 (Originally Feb. 28)
Tuesday- DH with Bluefield College 12 & 3
Friday – DH with Georgetown (Ky) 1 & 4
Saturday – DH with Georgetown (Ky) 12 & 3
*** The twin bill versus King College has been pushed back from March 3RD until March 24TH
Pitchers- Katie Grimm (WMHS) & Jennifer Jewell (LHS)
At Large- Kelsey Grimm (RHS) & Danni Short (Page)
6:11 P.M. – Now in the top of the 6TH inning. PCHS’s Rachael Breeden just hauled in a nice running catch out in Center Field for the 1ST out.
6:03 P.M. – Bill Meade is doing double duty as well as Steve Cox. Meade can be found at www.newsvirginian.com tomorrow as well as next week in the Page News & Courier.Bottom of 5TH- still 7-0.
5:55 P.M. – Top of the fifth inning- Kaitlyn Morris has relieved McDaniel and the Lady Panthers lead now 7-0.
RIVERHEADS – 000 000 0- 0 5 3
PAGE COUNTY- 150 100 x- 7 8 0
5:41 P.M. – Heading to the top of the fourth inning. Kristy McDaniel is still on the mound with a 6-0 lead.
5:29 P.M. – Page scores 5 runs in the bottom of the second to make the score 6-0. Sara Jenkins added a 2-run double in the rally. Wolfe walked again and scored a second run as well. Sitting next to Steve Cox who will be doing double duty as PA announcer and writer for Hubert Grimm III at the www.newsleader.com .
5:25 P.M. – Riverheads in bringing in a new pitcher, freshman Sam McLawhorne.Rachael Breeden is at the plate with the bases loaded and Page up 3-0.
5:16 P.M- Page County catcher Chasity Lucas just nailed her second runner attempting to steal. Heading in to the bottom of the second. Page County 1-0. Danni Short leads off the second with a hard hit double to left field for the Lady Panthers.
5:14 P.M. – Page County lead off hitter Brittany Wolfe turns a walk in to an Un-earned run after stealing second base. Wolfe came around to score when an attempt to double her off second base went into center field.
5:08 P.M. – It is the Red Pride of Riverheads vs. the Lady Panthers of Page County. 1ST pitch was at 5:00 sharp and it is now in the bottom of the 1ST. Riverheads picked up a single in the top of the first but Johnna Herndon was caught stealing at second base.
People talk about the first week-end of the NCAA Basketball tournament being as good as it gets for Sports but for folks like me ,who favor local High School athletes giving their all, today is the day of days. The opening day of Spring Sports District play is Mad Crazy.
Varsity action in Baseball, Soccer, Softball, Tennis and Track gives you so many choices that it can be fun just deciding where to go for your action that night. There is usually a gap between Class A & Class AA District play in our Area but with the weather that was not the case this year.
Bill Meade covers Luray & Page County High Schools and tonight he had 8 separate events that warranted coverage. But Bill is a One Man Band so you can imagine just how hard he had it tonight. His number would of been even higher but Luray’s baseball team and Page’s softball team drew a bye.
Our friends down at The News Virginian (Sisk & Sacco) had 12 events that needed coverage and they had 3 folks to try and accomplish the feat. Shenandoah Valley Herald’s John Galle had all of Stonewall Jackson (except Boys soccer) in action as well as Central. John caught a break that Strasburg and the Bull Run are waiting until Monday.
Then there was Chuck, TK & Jeremy up at the Northern Virginian Daily. Now they did have a touch of help from a Cast of Characters but still you have to applaud the effort of 10 gamers and 1 set of Round-Ups. I believe that young Mr. Stafford was still up in Salisbury covering the great run of Shenandoah University in the D-III baseball tournament but Chuck tells me that Jeremy had 2 of the 10 gamers.
The funny thing about the Newspaper business is that while Newspapers have to report on the economy and all of the companies that are struggling to stay out of bankruptcy, they can’t report on the issues facing their own industries. Take it from someone that has spent their entire life in the business through Circulation & Sports, this is a tough time for our industry right now. Everyone I mentioned above has been effected by the Crunch but for a Night they all put their Noses to the Grindstone and the end result should be a bunch of smiling faces tomorrow morning.
Sad part is that even with all of the Hard Work, no one was able to get to EVERY event. Here is to hoping that the focus can be on the games that were covered. If your team, your son or your daughter played in one of the remaining games not covered, feel free to send me the info and we will list it here.
Tonight a Tip of the Cap goes to each of the Sports Editors listed above as well as one Extra Wink to the fellas from Strasburg. Nice Work…
Great crowd @ Bridgewater College for the game.
Shenandoah District Coach of the Year – Panthers Alan Knight
