It is just over 800 miles from Bridgewater to Milwaukee, the site for Game 1 of the 2026 World Series that begins Friday night with the Brewers, managed by Pat Murphy, hosting the Tampa Bay Rays.
But the Fall Classic has a nice connection to the Shenandoah Valley, through Murphy, according to Curt Dudley, a 1983 Bridgewater College graduate and the long-time voice of home games for the Harrisonburg Turks of the Valley Baseball League.
Dudley, a long-time resident of Bridgewater and fixture in JMU Athletics communications, noted recently on social media that Murphy, the National League Manager of the Year in 2024 and 2025, was the baseball coach at Division III Maryville College in the early 1980s.
Dudley worked in the sports information office at BC at the time when Maryville and Bridgewater met in 1983 and 1984 in ODAC play, when Murphy was the head coach of the Scots.
“Congrats to the Milwaukee Brewers,” Dudley wrote after they took care of the Los Angeles Dodgers. “I keep up the best I can with MLB overall, but have closely watched the Brewers in the last couple of years. A fun team that is easy to root for. Manager Pat Murphy was once a coach at Maryville (TN), which played Bridgewater at the time as ODAC members, which means we’ve been on the same field a couple of times. For the record, the Eagles went 4-0 against the Scots those two seasons.”
BC won both games at home in 1983 against the Scots, 6-1 and 8-1. The Eagles were 12-11 overall and 7-9 in the ODAC that season under the late Tom Kinder.
The Eagles beat Maryville by scores of 4-1 and 8-3 in 1982.
For good measure, the Eagles also swept Maryville in 1984 and 1985.
Maryville is no longer in the ODAC.
BC won its second ODAC title in 1985.
Alan Propst, a 1980 Turner Ashby High School graduate, was a key hitter for the Eagles from 1981-1984. He was All-ODAC as a senior in 1984, as was former Harrisonburg High School slugger Jeff Poling. Both were alums of the Harrisonburg American Legion Post 27 program. Poling was also All-ODAC in 1985.
A right-handed hitter, Propst recalls playing on the road against Maryville, in 1982 and 1984. Since the distance between Maryville and the Harrisonburg area is several hours, the schools would alternate who would host each year.
“What I do remember is that the hotel we stayed at was next to the Knoxville airport. We would go over and watch the planes take off and land. Looking at Google Maps, the airport is about 10 minutes from the Maryville campus,” he wrote to the AFP.
Another player during that era was Curt Kendall, who later became an assistant coach under Kinder. Kendall took over the program and had great success before stepping down after the 2019 season to devote time as the athletics director, a post he still holds at BC.
Kendall won more than 700 games as the BC coach and is in the Virginia Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, Class of 2024.
EMU is also a member of the ODAC and faced Maryville in the early 1980s when Murphy was the skipper.
The Royals hosted Maryville during the 1981 season and in 1983.
Roger Mast played for EMU in 1982 and recalls a trip to Maryville.
“I believe that we traveled one weekend to play Maryville and Emory & Henry on the same weekend. The reason I remember that is that I had to catch all four games of the two doubleheaders,” he wrote, adding that catchers Todd Bolton and Mike Martin were hurt.
Waynesboro High School grad Kirk Hanger was the regular catcher for EMU in 1981.
Murphy has been the manager of the Brewers since 2024. After leaving Maryville, he coached another small school before landing at Notre Dame in 1987.
The Syracuse native played at Florida Atlantic and also coached at Arizona State before making the jump to MLB.
Other Virginia ties to the 2026 World Series
- Tampa Bay reliever Kevin Kelly pitched in high school at Paul VI in Northern Virginia and was drafted by Cleveland out of JMU in 2019. He has pitched five playoff games this year after appearing in 71 regular-season contests.
- Rick Knapp, an assistant pitching and rehab coach for Tampa Bay, pitched at Virginia Tech.
- Harrisonburg native and former JMU star Travis Harper pitched for Tampa Bay from 2000-2006.
- The year 1983 was a good one for baseball in the region – the Baltimore Orioles won the World Series, and JMU advanced to the College World Series.
- The last time the Brewers drafted a player out of the University of Virginia was Alec Bettinger of Alexandria in 2017.
- Tampa Bay took Kyle Johnson, also from Alexandria, in the draft this year out of Virginia.
- Erik Kratz, a 2002 graduate of EMU, appeared in the postseason with the Brewers as a catcher in 2018. He was the ODAC Player of the Year in 2001 and 2002. Kratz also played in the Valley League with Waynesboro and Harrisonburg – and played for Broadway in the Rockingham County Baseball League. Former JMU star Chase DeLauter, the RCBL MVP with Broadway in 2020, had 16 homers in regular-season play for Cleveland and one in the playoffs this year.
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David Driver
