Red Devils poised to claim title

Matt Rock / Culpeper Star Exponent
Published: August 5, 2007

The Red Devils are on the verge of becoming the first back-to-back champions in Apple Valley League history, winning a wild one against top-seeded Rappahannock 18-14.

With about 70 people and one dachshund in attendance, the two teams combined for 32 runs on 28 hits, 13 walks, seven hit batsman, five sacrifices and eight stolen bases.

"It's about guys being unselfish," Culpeper manager Jim Rutkowski said. "Everybody was just trying to put the ball in play."

Chris Cheshire started the game for Culpeper, and continued it after being nailed in the side by a line drive to go 4 1/3 innings.
"Chris gutted it out," Rutkowski said. "That kid took a real shot to the side and he hung in there."

Dillon Sheads came in for the rest of the game, going 4 2/3 innings to record the win.

The Culpeper hitting frenzy was lead by designated hitter Brian Hackley, who went 3-for-5 with four runs and four RBIs. Bryan Coffey went 3-for-4 with two runs and three RBIs, while Henry Wolfe went 3-for-4 with two RBIs.

Brent Rutkowski went 2-for-5, including a home run over the left field fence.

"If you put the ball in play, you have a shot," Jim Rutkowski said. "With our team speed, that makes a huge difference. You saw guys leg out hits today, you saw guys make them make errors because of our team speed, you can't compensate enough for that."

Culpeper, now 2-0 in the tournament, moves on to the championship round. They will play again on Sunday. They are waiting to see who comes out of the rest of the bracket. The game will be played at the American Legion field off of Route 229, first pitch scheduled for 2 p.m.

If the Red Devils win on Sunday, the Apple Valley League crown is theirs. If they lose, they get one more shot to repeat next Saturday.

They hope they can get a little help from a crowd such as today's.

"They get pumped up playing in front of a crowd, it's nice to have some tradition here," Rutkowski said. "Hopefully we'll have a big crowd out here again Sunday."

Matt Rock can be reached at .