Junior All-Stars heading to states

Staff reports
Published: July 9, 2008

The Culpeper A&N junior league all-stars went on the road and defeated Louisa Tuesday night in six innings, 12-2. 

Dan Strang allowed just five hits and two runs in 4 2/3 innings to help the Culpeper Junior All-Stars advance to the state tournament in Honaker starting July 17.  Strang had strong defensive help in shutting down Louisa with key plays from Jeremiah Yates, Joe Stevens, Matt Glascock, Jordan Queen, Carl Lacey and Ben Pittman who threw out two base runners from behind the plate. 

Offensively, the Culpeper squad put up 13 hits, with Dan Strang going 2 for 3 at the plate. Brandon Settle was 2 for 4, and Alex Curnow and Will Goodwin combined to go 2 for 3 from their shared spot in the order with 3 RBI. 

Jeremiah Yates hit the ball hard all 4 trips to the plate and ended the game with a 3 for 4 outing and drove in two runs on a triple in the bottom of the sixth inning.  In the No. 4 spot in the batting order, Ben Pittman had a memorable game going 4 for 4 with two RBI and laying down a squeeze bunt in the bottom of the sixth inning. 

Pittman and Yates executed it to perfection with Yates breaking for the plate as the pitcher went into his wind-up and as Pittman pushed the bunt up the first base line, Yates raced across home plate to end the game by mercy rule. 

The Culpeper squad will travel to Honaker as the District 14 champions and begin play on Friday the 18 at 12pm.

CULPEPER 11-12 ALL-STARS FALL

The Culpeper National 11-12 baseball team fell to Louisa 3-1 Tuesday to end its season. Nik Stewart was the starting pitcher for Culpeper, striking out seven and also scoring the Nationals only run. Louisa will take on McIntire for the District 14 championship.