Mathers, Linco, Generals donation to city will put finishing touches on lighted ballfield
Mathers Construction Team, Linco Inc. and the Waynesboro Generals are partnering with the City of Waynesboro to provide a concession stand for the new youth-baseball facility in the City’s North Park.
Mathers, Linco and the Generals are providing materials and labor to complete the 24-foot by 24-foot structure from the ground up. The City will provide utilities to the building and complete electrical and plumbing work at the site.
The value of the materials and labor being provided by Mathers and Linco is approximately $22,220.
“We’re excited to be able to assist the city in this project,” said Teresa Gauldin, president of the Mathers Construction Team.
The concession stand will be a final piece in the puzzle for the renovation of the North Park baseball field, which was aided by a $125,000 grant from Major League Baseball that will add lights to the ballfield, giving Waynesboro its first lighted youth-baseball facility.
“The City is sincerely grateful to the partners who have stepped forward to contribute so substantially to the project,” said City Manager Mike Hamp. “Their involvement is obviously beneficial from a financial perspective, but the contribution provides an element of community involvement that would not have otherwise been a part of the facility. The City thanks the partners for their community spirit and their support of youth baseball and softball. ”
The new concession stand will be ready in time to be open for business at the start of the 2011 little league season in April.
“The Waynesboro Generals want to be involved in this because not only do we want to put a winning team out on the field in the Valley League, but we want to do our part to help the next generation of baseball players,” said Jim Critzer, of Linco Inc. and the Generals.
The Waynesboro Generals have a history of these kinds of donations to local youth athletics. In recent years the team has made substantial donations to high-school baseball programs across the Waynesboro-Augusta County area.
“This baseball facility is important to the youth of Waynesboro. We’re glad from the standpoint of Mathers, Linco and the Generals to be able to help the City put the finishing touches on it.” Gauldin said.
Three Generals named to All-Valley teams
Taylor Sandeur and Drew Turocy were first-team All-Valley League selections, and Cody Hudson was named to the All-Valley second team, in selections announced on Saturday.
Sandefur was dominant on the mound for Waynesboro in 2010, going 7-0 in 13 appearances, including eight starts, with a 2.26 ERA. Sandefur, a 6-2, 245-pound freshman from Western Carolina, had 60 strikeouts in 59 and two-thirds innings pitched and allowed opposing hitters to bat just .215 on the season.
Turocy, a 6-3, 190-pound junior centerfielder from Akron, led the Generals in batting average at .370 with a home run and 31 RBIs. Turocy also had eight stolen bases in 10 attempts and seven outfield assists.
Hudson, a 5-11, 183-pound freshman leftfielder from Austin Peay, hit .303 with 24 RBI, a team-high 36 runs scored and 12 stolen bases in 14 attempts.
A notable omission from the All-Valley teams was Waynesboro third baseman Grant Fillipitch, who led the team with six home runs, 34 RBI and a .497 slugging percentage while hitting .302 on the season.
Named first-team All-Valley League at third base was Mike Garza from Woodstock (.388, 3 HR, 30 RBI), and named to the second-team at third base was Brant Jones (.356, 5 HR, 34 RBI).
Story by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.
Keywords: waynesboro virginia, waynesboro generals
Cards drop Waynesboro, 9-3, end Generals’ season
Front Royal got to Waynesboro starter Chastin Akers early and cruised to a 9-3 win in the deciding Game 3 of the teams’ first-round Valley League playoff series on Saturday night.
The Generals trailed 2-0 after one, but had a chance in the third to make it a game when a two-out walk to Chase Worthington loaded the bases for T.J. Kuban. Kuban flied out to deep right to leave the bases loaded, and Front Royal seized control with a threespot in the bottom of the third that knocked out Akers (1-1).
Waynesboro left 12 runners on base for the game.
First-team All-Valley outfielder Drew Turocy had three hits for Waynesboro.
The loss ends Waynesboro’s 2010 season.
Story by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.
Generals win, force deciding game in playoff series
Tim Leather had a rocky top of the first in his first start of the season, but after getting out of the bases-loaded, one-out jam with no damage, Leather was dominant, pitching seven scoreless innings to push Waynesboro to a 4-3 win over Front Royal in Game 2 of the teams’ first-round playoff series Friday night.
The win means there will be a deciding Game 3 Saturday night in Front Royal. First pitch in Bing Crosby Stadium is at 7:30 p.m.
Leather (1-0) also had to work his way out of a second-and-third, one-out situation in the third, striking out Cardinals’ cleanup hitter James Roche and getting Pete Greskoff to fly out to right. The Generals then put up a threespot in the bottom of the third, getting a leadoff single by Colin Harrington, a base on balls issued by Front Royal starter Ricky Ott (2-3) to Cody Hudson, and a wild RBI single by Grant Fillipitch that scored Harrington from second. On that play, Cards’ centerfielder Will Walsh tried to throw Hudson out at third base, but the ball hit Hudson on his slide into the bag and got away from third baseman Steve Rogers. Hudson scored, and Rogers’ throw home also got away from catcher Andy Drexel, allowing Fillipitch to advance to third, where he scored when Drew Turocy hit a sacrifice fly to left.
The Generals made it 4-0 in the fourth on another sac-fly RBI, this one off the bat of Harrington, scoring designated hitter Haskell Fink.
Leather handed a 4-0 lead to the bullpen in the eighth, but Front Royal got to the first man out of the pen, Zach McElroy, getting back-to-back doubles by Roche and Greskoff and an RBI groundout by A.J. Albee to make it 4-3 Waynesboro. Mark Lamm got the final two outs of the eighth, then closer Andrew Blackwell pitched a scoreless ninth, getting Matt Holland to fly out to Hudson in left to end it.
Story by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.
Keywords: waynesboro virginia, front royal virginia
Generals-Cards Game 2 pushed back another night
Heavy rain creating poor field conditions have once again delayed Game 2 of the Waynesboro-Front Royal first-round Valley League playoff series.
The game will be completed on Friday at 7 p.m. at Mathers Park at Kate Collins Field. The contest had gotten under way on Wednesday night, but was put into a delay with the score at 0-0 in the top of the second inning.
Heavy rain on Wednesday had pushed the completion of the game to Thursday at 7 p.m. Heavy rains in the Waynesboro area Thursday afternoon, with more in the forecast for the evening and night hours, forced the additional delay.
Edited by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.
Keywords: waynesboro virginia, front royal virginia
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
Braves continue mastery of Generals, 7-5
Staunton was 13-25 against the rest of the Valley League in 2010, but the Braves finished 5-1 against their cross-county rivals in Waynesboro with a 7-5 win over the Generals at Mathers Park Sunday night.
The game was knotted at 3-3 in the seventh when Waynesboro starter Greg Smith gave up a one-out double to Stephen Branca that drove Daniel Wright home. A two-out double by Patrick Braswell plated Branca and made it 5-3 Staunton.
The Braves added two in the eighth off reliever Justin Thompson, with Brian Collins scoring Justin Bagbey from second with a one-out single and Collins scoring on a two-out error by T.J. Kuban.
Waynesboro rallied for two in the ninth, with a Jon Clinard sacrifice-fly RBI scoring Kuban, and Devin Smith scoring on a wild pitch on strike three to shortstop Jared King on what would have been the game’s final out. King made it to first without a throw to bring the tying run to the plate in the form of Drew Turocy, but Turocy grounded into a force play to end it.
Smith (1-1) took the loss for Waynesboro, going allowing five runs on 10 hits in six and two-thirds innings.
Joey cuda (4-5) picked up the win with four and a third innings of relief, allowing two runs, one earned, on four hits.
Story by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.
keywords: waynesboro generals, staunton braves, greg smith, drew turocy, jon clinard, jared king, waynesboro virginia
