Safe at Home now available as e-book
The New Market Rebels of the Valley Baseball League are pleased to announce that Safe at Home: A Season in the Valley, a non-fiction work about the 2009 Rebels’s squad, is now available as an e-book.
“I’m excited about offering Safe at Home in this format,” says author Austin Gisriel. “Publishing is changing rapidly and it is important for authors to change with it in order to offer their readers the best experience possible.”
Safe at Home is available for the Kindle, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Sony, and Kobo readers among others and the book may be ordered through the Kindle Store or Smashwords.com. Amazon offers a free Kindle application for your PC, Mac, iPhone, Blackberry, iPad, Android, or Windows 7 phone. The e-book retails for $2.99.
Each chapter contains a link to the Safe at Home on-line photo album where Melissa Dodge’s outstanding photographs that appeared in the printed version may be viewed in full color.
The book was printed in paperback form by Augusta Free Press Publishing LLC, the parent company of AugustaFreePress.com.
Gisriel’s next e-publishing project also involves the Valley League. A 30 year retrospective tentatively entitled “The Glorious Summer,” the lengthy article focuses on the 1981 season in which New Market and the Winchester Royals battled for the Valley League crown. The Rebels boasted three future major leaguers that year in Tom Browning, John Kruk, and Dan Pasqua, but it was Winchester that had the season of a lifetime. Plans currently call for this e-article to be offered at no charge.
Former Generals aiming for spot in College World Series
A pair of former Waynesboro Generals will play key roles for the top-ranked Virginia Cavaliers as they face off with Cal-Irvine this weekend for a spot in the College World Series.
“It will definitely be a good weekend of baseball. Two really good teams. It’s golng to come down to who can execute. This time of year, it’s all about who can execute when they have the chance to. The #1 seed doesn’t mean anything in this. Everyone just has to play great baseball now to win. Teams made it this far for a reason,” said Justin Thompson, a relief pitcher for the Cavs this spring who credits his experience in Waynesboro in 2010 with getting him ready for college baseball this year.
Thompson and teammate Jared King, the starting first baseman at Virginia, attended the Waynesboro-Rockbridge game at Kate Collins Field Wednesday night to check in on their old stomping grounds. Virginia and Cal-Irvine will begin their best-of-three Super Regional series on Saturday at 1 p.m. Game 2 is set for Sunday at 1 p.m., with Game 3, if necessary, scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday.
Thompson has been the eighth-inning setup man for coach Brian O’Connor in 2011, compiling a 3-1 record and 2.97 ERA in 20 appearances.
“I came into last year here not having thrown too much for Virginia, and then I came to the Valley League and got time to work on different stuff,” Thompson said. “It really helped me going into fall ball, and I was able to win a position going into spring season. The Valley definitely helped for the experience and picking up stuff from different schools and guys you played with.”
King’s summer in Waynesboro in 2010 followed a redshirt season at UVa. following shoulder surgery.
“This gave me the opportunity to go out and play every day. With my throwing program last summer, if I wasn’t playing in the field, I was going to DH, and that was the biggest thing for me, was just getting at-bats,” said King, who is hitting .324 for a homer and 25 RBI for Virginia in 2011.
Three of their teammates – first baseman/catcher Ryan Levine, pitcher/outfielder Shane Halley and pitcher Ryan Ashooh – will join the Generals this summer once the UVa. season is done. Thompson said he and King have given the trio a scouting report on the Valley League.
“We told them the coaching staff here is great. They help all the players get better, let us play loose and just have fun playing. You’re trying to get better. And told them that traveling around the Valley League is nice. The bus trips aren’t bad, so it’s not like it’s going to beat you down most trips. Mainly just trying to get better every day, and the Valley League is the place to do it, because you’re playing every day,” Thompson said.
Generals pitch in at Wenonah Field Day
Friday is get-down-to-business time for the Waynesboro Generals, who open their season on the road at Rockbridge. Thursday was a break from the preparations for the 2011 Valley League season for several members of the team who helped Wenonah Elementary School with its annual Field Day.
“We’re just playing around with the kids, just having a good time,” said Michael Davis, a catcher from Walters State Community College in Morristown, Tenn.
For Joseph Lucas, a Bridgewater College product and Waynesboro native, the day was also about reconnecting with people who watched him pitch for Waynesboro High School a few years ago.
“I remember looking up to the Generals as being big-name baseball players. Now to fill that role is an honor,” Lucas said.
Chris Graham joins ‘Baseball in the Valley’ podcast
Chris Graham was a guest on the debut installment of “Baseball in the Valley,” a podcast hosted by Austin Gisriel covering Valley League Baseball.
“Baseball in the Valley” is broadcast live on Blog Talk Radio on Thursdays at 6 p.m. You can access archived podcasts at www.blogtalkradio.com/seamheads .
Graham, play-by-play broadcaster for the Waynesboro Generals, will be a regular guest on the summer podcast series.
Gisriel is the author of A Season in the Valley, a book chronicling a season behind the scenes with the Valley League’s New Market Rebels. A Season in the Valley was published in 2010 by Augusta Free Press Publishing.
The 2011 Valley League season begins Thursday, June 2. The Generals open play on Friday, June 3, on the road at Rockbridge. Waynesboro’s home opener is Saturday, June 4, against Covington.
More information about the Generals is online at www.WaynesboroGenerals.com.
Generals fall in Game 1, 6-2
A two-RBI Alan Stoupa single gave Waynesboro a 2-1 sixth-inning lead, but Front Royal responded with four in the bottom of the sixth, the big blow a two-out, three-run homer by Sean Jamieson, and the Royals took Game 1 of the teams’ Valley League first-round playoff series, 6-2, Tuesday night.
Jarryd Summers (2-2) took the loss for Waynesboro, giving up five runs, one earned, on four hits. An error by shortstop Chase Worthington on a grounder by Cardinals cleanup hitter James Roche that came after a leadoff single by Matt Holland helped open the way for the Jamieson homer, which followed an RBI single by Pete Greskoff, a sacrifice bunt by Andy Drexel and a strikeout of A.J. Albee.
Blake Ford (3-3) got the win for Front Royal, giving up two runs on nine hits in six and two-thirds innings.
Game 2 of the Front Royal-Waynesboro playoff series is set for Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Mathers Park at Kate Collins Field in Waynesboro.
Story by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.
Keywords: waynesboro virginia, front royal virginia, valley league baseball
Waynesboro splits with Harrisonburg, earns #5 seed in playoffs
A seven-run fourth rallied Waynesboro from a 4-1 deficit in game two of a doubleheader at Harrisonburg and earned the Generals a split with the Turks on Monday.
The split gives Waynesboro the #5 seed in the Valley League playoffs, which get going Tuesday night with the Generals traveling to Front Royal to take on the fourth-seeded Cardinals in Game 1 of a best-of-three first-round series.
Waynesboro got complete-game seven-inning efforts from a pair of pitchers making their first starts of the season, Drew Turocy, who took the tough-luck 1-0 loss in Game 1 on Monday against the Turks, and Devin Smith, who shut out Harrisonburg in the final four innings after giving up three in the first and a single run in the third.
Turocy, the Generals’ starting centerfielder most of the season, keyed the seven-run fourth-inning rally in Game 2 with a three-run homer to right field, his first homer of the season, and the first homer by a General other than Grant Fillipitch, who finished the regular season with six home runs in 2010.
Turocy (0-2) lost Game 1 despite giving up just one run on seven hits in six innings of work. Turocy struck out four and did not issue a walk in the effort.
Smith (1-1) gave up four runs on six hits in seven innings pitched in Game 2. Smith struck out three and walked one.
The split of the doubleheader left Waynesboro and Harrisonburg tied for fifth in the league standings with identical 22-22 records. Waynesboro earned the #5 seed by virtue of their 3-2 advantage over Harrisonburg in their head-to-head series in 2010.
#4 seed Front Royal finished a game ahead of the two teams with a 23-21 record. The Cards and the Generals split their season series at 2-2. Front Royal won the first two matchups between the teams, 3-2 in 11 innings on June 15 in Front Royal and 8-5 on June 29 in Waynesboro, and Waynesboro winning the final two, 9-6 at Front Royal on July 15 and 4-3 in Waynesboro on July 28.
Game 1 of the Waynesboro-Front Royal playoff series is set for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Bing Crosby Stadium in Front Royal.
Game 2 will be played at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Mathers Park at Kate Collins Field in Waynesboro.
Game 3, if necessary, would be played on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at Front Royal.
Story by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.
Keywords: waynesboro generals, front royal cardinals, harrisonburg turks, valley league, valley league baseball, waynesboro virginia, front royal virginia, harrisonburg virginia
Generals get win in first game of Sunday doubleheader
Chastin Akers picked six strong innings in his first start of the Valley League season, and Waynesboro got the win in the first of two on Sunday, knocking off Covington, 6-4.
Akers (1-0) gave up three runs on seven hits in his second appearance of the season. The 6-7 lefty from Concord got some help early as the Generals scored three runs in the bottom of the first aided by a pair of Covington errors, including one on a one-out grounder by Drew Turocy that allowed Colin Harrington and Cody Hudson to score.
Chase Worthington had a pair of sacrifice-fly RBIs for Waynesboro, which had already clinched a playoff berth on Saturday night when Woodstock lost to Winchester.
The win pushes Waynesboro for the moment into fifth place a half-game ahead of idle Harrisonburg.
The Generals host Staunton at 7 p.m. in their regular-season home finale.
Story by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.
keywords: waynesboro generals, covington lumberjacks, waynesboro virginia, valley league, valley league baseball, chastin akers
