New Market led the selections on the Valley Baseball League All-North Division team with four first-place picks while regular-season division winner Purcellville and Winchester each had three picks.

Each franchise in the North had a vote on the all-division team and teams were not allowed to vote for their own players.

Three players received the maximum five first-place votes – Purcellville’s Shintaro Inoue (Kansas State) and Kaleb Freeman (Georgia State) and Front Royal’s Broedy Poppell Florida A&M).

Cannons’ shortstop Inoue hit .277 and led the North in RBIs with 37 and tied for the division lead in homers with seven.

Purcellville outfielder Freeman hit .228 but walked an incredible 50 times to finish with a .486 on-base percentage. He tied with his teammate Inoue for the division lead in homers with seven.

Poppell, Front Royal’s catcher hit .331. He led the North in base hits with 49 and stolen bases with 27.

The rest of the North infield features Winchester’s Jaylen Hernandez (Winthrop) at first base, Woodstock’s Luke Keister (Shenandoah) at second base and New Market’s Blaine Waltimyer (Penn State-Harrisburg) at third base.

Hernandez hit .297 and was second in the North in hits with 44. Keister had 34 hits for the River Bandits and hit an even .300. Waltimyer hit .327 with 37 base hits for the Rebels.

Joining Freeman in the OF were Strasburg’s Connor Chisholm (Mississippi) and Winchester’s Austin Lafferty (Akron). Chisholm led the North with a .364 batting average. He also stole 20 bases. Lafferty hit .333 and had 37 base hits.

New Market’s Kyle Musser (Cornell) was the first-team designated hitter and Purcellville’s Rafael Furcal (San Jacinto) was the utility player. Musser finished with a .341 batting average. Furcal hit .308 for the Cannons.

New Market’s John Henry Williams (Arkansas State) was picked at the two-way spot. Williams hit .252 and, on the mound, he struck out 40 batters in 31.2 innings.

First-team pitchers included Front Royal’s Oliver Ellison (Coastal Carolina), Strasburg’s Connor Burt (Troy), Winchester’s Dutch DeProspero (Hood) and New Market’s Luke Roggenburk (St. Bonaventure).

Ellison was 2-0 with a 1.20 ERA in 22.1 innings. Strasburg’s Burt was dominant out of the bullpen with a 0.98 ERA in 11 appearances totaling 18.1 innings. He struck out 27 batters. DeProspero was a workhorse for the Royals, leading the team with 37.1 innings on the mound while posting a 2-1 record. Roggenburk made 19 relief appearances for the Rebels. He struck out 35 batters in 27 innings with a 1.33 ERA.

Named the North’s second team catcher was New Market’s Connor Reilly (East Stroudsburg).

Around the infield it was Woodstock’s Ryan Wilson (Middle Georgia) at first base and Preston Joye (Mercer) at shortstop, Purcellville’s Jake Slade (Virginia Tech) at third base and Winchester’s Jack Mosh (Minnesota) at second base.

The outfield featured New Market’s Chaise Albus (East Stroudsburg) and Zach Walsh (UNC-Greensboro) along with Winchester’s Shanley Wall (East Stroudsburg).

Strasburg’s Anthony Bianchina (Charlotte) was the utility player on the second team and Express teammate Miles Curley (College of Central Florida) was the two-way player.

The pitchers included Woodstock’s Brandon Gray (Stonehill) and Tyler Strickland (UNC-Pembroke), New Market’s Spencer Williams (Liberty) and Strasburg’s Gavin Lill (Millersville).