Liberty 9, JMU 0

AFP

Four Liberty pitchers combined to allow one hit and the Flames scored in seven of eight turns at the plate to shut out James Madison 9-0 in a non-conference baseball game Wednesday afternoon at Worthington Stadium. Liberty snapped a brief two-game losing skid to improve to 17-3 overall.  The Flames, who defeated the Dukes for…

Chris Graham: McDonnell’s political obit

Chris Graham

How would you like to be Bob McDonnell right about now? It wasn’t that long ago when the pundits had you pegged as the GOP vice-presidential nominee, and that was before you formally endorsed Mitt Romney, right before the critical South Carolina primary. The endorsement of a Southern Republican governor before a key Southern primary…

UVa. baseball tops Marist

Chris Graham

The Virginia baseball team notched an 8-5 victory over Marist Tuesday evening at Davenport Field. Chris Taylor (Jr., Virginia Beach, Va.) and Keith Werman (Sr., Vienna, Va.) each posted three hits for the Cavaliers (10-5-1). The teams will play again at 5 p.m. Wednesday at Davenport Field. Virginia starting pitcher Branden Kline (Jr., Frederick, Md.)…

Virginia ag exports reach all-time high

AFP

Gov. Bob McDonnell announced Tuesday  that agricultural exports from Virginia reached an all-time high level in 2011, surpassing the previous record set in 2009.  The governor made the announcement during his keynote remarks at the Governor’s Conference on Agricultural Trade in Richmond. The Commonwealth exported a record $2.35 billion in agricultural products in 2011, a…

UNC-W takes Game 2 from JMU

AFP

In a back-and-forth contest, UNCW pushed in front with two runs in the fifth, padded the lead with two more in the seventh and held on in the ninth inning to defeat James Madison 8-7 in a Colonial Athletic Association baseball game Saturday afternoon at Brooks Field. UNCW improved to 5-9 overall and 2-0 in…

JMU women’s lax drops close one to UR

AFP

Redshirt-junior attacker Casey Ancarrow (Jarrettsville, Md./John Carroll) picked up five goals for the Dukes, surpassing 100 goals in her career but the 13th-ranked James Madison women’s lacrosse team fell to Richmond 13-12 on Saturday.  With the loss the Dukes fell to 3-3 on the season while the Spiders improved to 3-3. With the game tied…

Local economy ranks among tops micropolitans in country

AFP

Staunton/Augusta/Waynesboro’s economy ranks among the country’s strongest micropolitan areas, reports the March issue of Site Selection Magazine.  Staunton/Augusta/Waynesboro is tied at #13 in the national ranking and is top-ranked for Virginia. The only other Virginia locality to make the list, Martinsville, comes in at #32. The US Census Bureau defines a micropolitan region as an…