Friendly foes

Ron Counts, Sports Correspondent
Published: July 15, 2008

Many of them have shared the same dugout and the same classroom since middle school. Most of them even study under the tutelage of the same managers as part of the Sting, a high school fall league team that plays its home games here in Culpeper.

But tonight, the Culpeper American Legion Post 330 baseball team and the Orange American Legion Post 156 team — which has a roster full of current, and former, Blue Devils — will take Paul Sizemore Memorial Field in Orange as rivals.

“It’s going to be a good game,” Culpeper manager Jeff Crane said. “Knowing most of the players, it’s going to be a pretty intense one too.”

Last year, much of the CCHS varsity pitching staff fled south to Orange, which fielded an American Legion team for the first time in more than a decade, according to Crane. This summer marks the first year that Culpeper has had an American Legion team since 2002.

“This has been a rebuilding year for us,” said Crane, whose team defeated Remington 19-12 last Thursday to improve to 5-7 on the season. “But I’m really proud of my guys because we’ve been in just about every game.”

CCHS hurlers Cody Whitlock and Jeremy Brown — who have a combined 59 strikeouts in 51 innings of work — are a big part of the reason Orange boasts an 11-7 record coming into tonight’s contest.

With a pitching rotation that also includes DJ Brown, who has struck out 36 batters in 33 innings on his way to a 4-2 record and a 2.41 ERA, and Mathew Simpson, who is 2-0 with a 1.13 ERA through 16 innings, Crane knows that his club is going to have to be at its best if it wants to leave Orange with a win.

“We’ve got to play small ball,” he said. “We have to run the bases properly, execute with runners in scoring position, and our pitchers have to hit their spots.”

Culpeper has won two of its last three games thanks to an offense that has kept the score in double digits in all three contests. Brandon Scott is leading Post 330’s attack, hitting .422 with four doubles and 10 RBI. Nolan Jenkins has also been productive, hitting .324 with four doubles and a triple.

“We know most of the guys on the Culpeper team and what they can do,” Orange shortstop and second baseman Trevor Funk said. “We’re going to have to come out and hit the ball and play the way we know we can.”

With only four games remaining in the regular season, and the district tournament looming, Crane knows that tonight’s game is an important one even though it’s a non-district affair.

“Confidence wise this game means a lot to us because it has become a little rivalry between Culpeper and Orange,” he said.