• Three more games were banged last night- sudden thunderstorms popped up and washed out the contests scheduled in Front Royal, Purcellville, and Charlottesville. The league is running out of time to make up contests, as the regular season is scheduled to end on July 24. (The playoffs are to begin immediately after.) I imagine there will be some sort of announcement, or at least decision made, in the next few days. The teams meet at the All-Star game, so perhaps something will be decided then.
  • The Home Run derby participants will be announced, hopefully, later today. We waited longer this year to make sure that the young men announced were actually willing, as that has not always been the case in the past. (One year I think about half of the announced participants begged off.)
  • I’ll be working on a stat project for the All-Star game today and tomorrow- it literally takes six or seven hours to complete.
  • D1baseball.com is sending terrific writer (and scout) Aaron Fitt to the All-Star game. I’m excited to meet him again.
  • Spinning while I’m working on this: Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks.

Results

  • Staunton 4, Covington 3: Staunton got stellar relief work last night to hold off the Jacks and tighten the playoff chase in the South even more. At the moment, Covington holds the fourth spot by two games over Staunton.
  • Strasburg 6, Woodstock 0: The Express got a combined shutout from five pitchers to pull into a virtual tie for first place in the North (Express is ahead by percentage points). Both teams are in line for the playoffs, but the race to the end should be interesting.

Hitter of the Day

The hitter of the day is Strasburg’s Armando Albert, who went 2-4, with a run, RBI, walk, and stolen base. From Florida Atlantic, the sophomore is now hitting .273/.457/.303 in 66 at-bats, with a stellar 23/21 BB/K ratio and eight stolen bases. Albert hit .251/.408/.355 in 211 at-bats this spring, with 58 runs scored in 55 games, along with 45 walks and 189 stolen bases.

Others of Note

  • Michael Pavelchak, Covington: 2-4, run, walk, stolen base
  • Gavin Baird, Covington: 1-2, two walks, stolen base
  • Henry Koehler, Strasburg: 2-4, RBI
  • Tommy Tavarez, Strasburg: 2-4, run, double
  • Felix Diaz, Staunton: 2-4, RBI

Pitcher of the Day

The pitcher with the best game score last night is Strasburg’s Anthony Ursitti, the big righthander from Florida. Ursitti threw 3 2/3 shutout innings while allowing two hits and one walk, and struck out five. After four starts this summer, he’s 0-1, 2.34, with 14 K’s in 15 1/3 innings pitched. he struck out 26 in 22 innings this spring.

Others of Note

  • Nathaniel Gorczyca, Covington: Three innings, one hit, no runs, no walks, one K
  • Nathan Knowles, Staunton: Three innings, two hits, one unearned run, three walks, four K’s, win
  • Will Droll, Strasburg: Two perfect innings, one K
  • Kelan Hoover, Woodstock: Five innings, seven hits, three runs, two earned, one walk, ten K’s, loss- he may have lost this one, but there’s quite a bit of buzz around Hoover. He’s a dude!

Tonight’s Games

  • Waynesboro (Ricko) at Covington (TBD), 7 PM
  • Purcellville (Reid) at Strasburg (Hartman), 7 PM
  • Front Royal (Johnson) at New Market (Bautista), 7:30 PM
  • Charlottesville (Gair) at Harrisonburg (Smith), 7:30 PM