JMU sweeps Bucknell
The James Madison baseball team continued showing early offensive prowess in its doubleheader sweep of visiting Bucknell, 9-2 and 26-15, Feb. 19. With the two wins, the Dukes move to 3-0 on the year with the Bison falling to 0-3.
In the opener, JMU broke on top in the first as sophomore Johnny Bladel (Ashburn, Va./Stone Bridge) blasted a solo shot over the right field fence in the bottom of the first to open the scoring. Bucknell then answered in the second with a home run of its own, as Drew Constable also went over the right field fence to knot the game at one. Read more
#13 UVa. baseball rocks #23 Auburn
Behind six shutout innings from starting pitcher Tyler Wilson (Sr., Midlothian, Va.) and 13 runs from the offense over the final five innings, the No. 13 Virginia baseball team routed No. 23 Auburn, 13-2, Saturday afternoon in the Auburn Tournament, held at Plainsman Park in Auburn, Ala.
Making his first start after 51-consecutive relief outings, Wilson was extremely impressive. He worked six innings, allowing just three singles and two walks while striking out six in picking up the win. Will Roberts (Jr., Richmond, Va.) tossed a perfect seventh inning, while Ryan Ashooh (Fr., Clifton, Va.) made his first UVa appearance and pitched the final two innings. Read more
Richmond rallies to beat Duke, even season-opening series
Richmond scored six runs in the final three innings and stormed back from an early 6-0 deficit to beat Duke 9-8 Saturday in the second of a three-game series at Jack Coombs Field in Durham, N.C.
Senior righty Anthony Cafagna fired the final seven innings to get the win, while Mike Mergenthaler and Bryan Conway each had four of Richmond’s (1-1) 15 hits in the winning effort.
Mergenthaler and Conway each finished four-for-five, with Mergenthaler swiping a career-high three bases. Jacob Mayers (Mechanicsville, Va./Hanover) had three hits, two RBI and scored three times and drove in the go-ahead run in the eighth. Read more
#1 UVa. opens lax season with win over #18 Drexel
Chris Bocklet tallied five points on four goals and Shamel Bratton added a hat trick as the No. 1 Virginia Cavaliers (1-0) topped the No. 18 Drexel Dragons (0-1) on Saturday evening, 12-9, inside Klöckner Stadium in both teams’ season openers.
Shamel Bratton’s three goals give him 72 career scores, moving him into No. 8 all-time in the UVa annals among midfielders.
“Obviously this game was really important,” said head coach Dom Starsia. “We hadn’t been practicing well for about a week now, we didn’t play particularly well last week, or in our final preseason scrimmage. So there was a little bit of concern. There was a good lacrosse team coming in, and I knew it was going to require our best effort. And it did. I gave the kids a lot of credit for hanging in there and fighting to the end. That’s going to stand out as a quality we need for the rest of the season.” Read more
Chris Graham: Draft Perriello?
It seems to me that Tim Kaine is the logical choice for Virginia Democrats looking for a Senate candidate in 2012 – and I wouldn’t call myself a political genius for thinking that way.
The conventional wisdom isn’t stopping a group of Virginia Dems who are pushing recently unseated former congressman Tom Perriello for the 2012 nomination.
“From job creation to health care to energy, Tom Perriello has worked for solutions to America’s biggest challenges,” said Aimee Fausser, a member of the Albemarle County Democratic Committee. “While we’ll support whoever wins the Democratic nomination, Tom has proven that he can both rally the progressive base and earn the support of independent voters.”
A Draft Perriello movement has indeed sprung up. A Facebook group for the movement has more than 800 members, and hundreds more have signed a petition at DraftPerriello.com.
“Tom Perriello arrived in Congress just as the GOP’s failed economic policies, championed by George W. Bush and George Allen, were stripping America’s economy of nearly a million jobs a month,” said Lowell Feld, editor of BlueVirginia.us and one of the founders of 2006′s Draft Webb movement. “But instead of shying away from the crisis, Tom took the challenge head-on. We need more leaders like Tom in the Senate.”
My take: Perriello would be a wonderful choice for Democrats if Kaine, a former governor and lieutenant governor, decides against running. (Which I don’t expect will be the case.) I can make the argument for a successful Perriello effort even in the wake of his loss in November to Republican Robert Hurt given his strong showings in 2008 and 2010 in the conservative Fifth District. The formula for successful Democratic campaigns in Virginia dating back to Mark Warner’s 2001 gubernatorial win is do well enough in Southside and Southwest and then clean up in Northern Virginia, Richmond and Hampton Roads. Perriello could run that kind of campaign.
The key distinction here is that while we can make the argument that Perriello can run that kind of campaign, Kaine has run that kind of campaign, twice, and been successful twice in statewide races.
To me, if Kaine runs, it would make the most sense for Democrats if the race for the Democratic nomination is a one-candidate race. Republicans will clearly be bitterly divided on their side of the ledger. I think Kaine wins straight up against George Allen (who I presume will emerge from the Republican dustup as the GOP nominee) by 5-7 points, and if somehow a second or third option emerges from the Republican side who is more to the liking of the Tea Party base, then we could be talking a Mark Warner-Jim Gilmore-level butt-whupping in the making.
A Perriello challenge to Kaine wounds both, but Kaine still emerges to run in November 2012, and maybe Perriello’s career ends up being set back a few years.
Bottom line: I don’t see it happening unless Kaine steps aside. At which point the Draft Perriello movement gets to be very, very interesting.
More columns from Chris at TheWorldAccordingToChrisGraham.com.
UVa. completes season sweep of Hokies
A 13-1 Virginia Tech run cut a 15-point Virginia second-half lead to three, but Mustapha Farrakhan answered with a long three-pointer, and the ‘Hoos were able to hold off the Hokies in the final minute to pull out a 61-54 win on Saturday.
The loss could be a blow to Virginia Tech’s NCAA Tournament hopes. The Hokies (17-8, 7-5 ACC) came into the game at #58 in the NCAA RPI ratings. Virginia, ranked 151st in the latest RPI, earned a season sweep of Tech with the win at home on Saturday. Virginia knocked off Virginia Tech 57-54 in Blacksburg in December.
That win came when UVa. seemed to be on the rise – with a win at Minnesota on its way to an 8-3 start. The Cavs had lost 10 of their last 14 heading into Saturday, and hadn’t broken the 50-point mark at home in close to a month. Read more
#13 UVa. opens with 6-4 win over UAB
Danny Hultzen (Jr., Bethesda, Md.) pitched 6.2 innings of one-run baseball and added a pair of run-scoring hits, while David Coleman (Sr., Richmond, Va.) chipped in three hits as the No. 13 Virginia baseball team opened its season with a 6-4 win over UAB Friday afternoon in the Auburn Tournament, held at Plainsman Park in Auburn, Ala. Read more
VCU opens with win over Fordham
Juniors Taylor Perkins and Taylor Buran collected three hits apiece and Virginia Commonwealth University defeated Fordham, 6-3, Friday afternoon at The Diamond in the season opener for both schools.
Perkins went 3-for-3 with a run and a RBI, while Buran finished 3-for-4 in his VCU debut. Freshman Bill Cullen went 2-for-5 and scored a pair of runs in his first collegiate game.
Junior Kyle Pelchy tossed 3.1 scoreless innings in relief to pick up the win for the Black & Gold. VCU starter Seth Cutler-Voltz allowed three runs on eight hits with nine strikeouts and just one walk when he left the game with a 3-3 tie in the sixth. Senior Brian Pendergast, who was charged with the loss for Fordham, settled down after a shaky first inning, retired six straight, and tossed 4.1 scoreless innings before surrendering the go-ahead run in the sixth. Read more
JMU routs Bucknell 37-7 in baseball season opener
James Madison set the early tone with a 15-run first inning and broke the program mark for runs in a game with an opening-day 37-7 victory over Bucknell on Friday afternoon at Eagle Field at Veterans Memorial Park.
After a scoreless first for Bucknell, JMU sent 20 batters to the plate in the bottom of the first. The Dukes collected 13 hits, including six home runs, while staking the early 15-0 lead. JMU went on to add runs in each of the first seven innings, including seven-spots in each the third and fourth innings.
The 37 runs established a new JMU record, topping the previous high of 35 set in a 35-3 home win over Wagner on March 4, 2006. The Dukes also set a new standard with 18 extra-base hits (seven doubles, one triple, and 10 home runs) to shatter the previous mark of 13. JMU hit back-to-back-to-back home runs three different times, including twice in the first inning and again in the third. That was part of a total of 10 round trippers in the game, one shy of the JMU record. Read more
Chris Graham: Facebook conundrum
A friend on Facebook wonders aloud (on Facebook) about bands on tape on stop signs in Waynesboro.
Some signs, Heather Chandler noticed, had one tape band, others two, others three.
“Not every sign at any given corner has the tape,” she Facebooked.
There seems to be no rhyme or reason.
“Does anyone know the reason for this tape?”
I get engaged in that effort by another Facebook friend.
“If he doesn’t know, he’ll want to know!” Mary Sproles Martin comments on the Facebook thread, by way of getting me on the case.
Within a few minutes, I’m e-mailing the city manager, Mike Hamp, who gets back to me in short order, telling me that he’s not sure at first glance, but will check.
Before an hour is up we have our answer.
“Our staff perceived an increase in signs being hit by vehicles,” Hamp e-mailed me, explaining that the strips of tape were actually scraps and were applied simply with the intention of increasing visibility.
“The scrap factor explains why some signs have more than others, and the apparent randomness I assume relates to signs that were more vulnerable, but I am only speculating,” Hamp e-mailed.
Bottom line: Scraps, promote visibility, reduce hitting of signs.
Hamp added that the program has been discontinued.
I shared the answer from Hamp on the Facebook thread.
“Thank you Chris – it is good to know that it’s not some kind of alien navigation system,” Chandler commented after.
With Martin adding: “Of course, it isn’t a very exciting explanation!”
More columns by Chris at TheWorldAccordingToChrisGraham.com.
AFP assists Augusta County on social-media project
Augusta County government is now on Facebook and Twitter – with an assist from Augusta Free Press LLC.
AFP assisted county staff in building presences on Facebook and Twitter for the county. The Augusta County Board of Supervisors voted in February to approve new policy guidelines for the dissemination of public information on the social-media portals.
Augusta Free Press LLC consulted with staff on the development of the policy guidelines and then worked with staff members to set up the new pages.
“We think this move by the county will encourage more participation in local government by county residents,” AFP owner Chris Graham said. “Many county residents are on Facebook, and as more and more ‘like’ the new county page on Facebook, they will see news and events related to county government in their news feeds. This will be a great tool for people to keep tabs on what their government is doing.”
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W&M dominates Radford in BracketBusters
Posted on February 20, 2011 · Leave a Comment
Sophomore guard Matt Rum topped the Tribe with a career-high 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the floor, including 4-of-6 from 3-point range. Junior forward Quinn McDowell tallied his second straight double-double as he notched 13 points and 10 rebounds. Freshman guard Julian Boatner continued his torrid shooting from beyond the 3-point arc, knocking down four triples to finish with 12 points. Senior forward Marcus Kitts just missed a double-double with 10 points and seven rebounds to go along with four blocked shots, while freshman guard Brandon Britt scored 10 points and dished out a team-best five assists. Read more
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