Waynesboro wins Valley League

Courtesy of Valley League

LURAY, Va., Aug. 10, 2007 - Top-seeded Waynesboro broke a 3-3 tie with a three-run eighth-inning rally and defeated third-seeded Luray on its home turf at Bulldog Field to capture the Jim Lineweaver Cup as the Valley Baseball League 2007 champion.

Waynesboro won the best of five series three games to one over Luray, the defending champion from 2006. Game four was the first game in the series won by the visiting team. It was the first league championship for the Generals since 1998 when they swept Staunton 3-0.

This season, Waynesboro went 30-13-1 overall to earn the VBL's top seed. The Generals have the best regular season record over the last two seasons combined with a 27-15 mark in 2006. Skipper Lawrence Nesselrodt was honored with his second straight VBL Coach of the Year honor this year.

Danny Williamson (Middleburg, Fla./North Florida C.C.) earned the victory for Waynesboro, pitching three innings of no-hit relief with two strikeouts to improve to 3-1. Jimmy Stanley (Lexington, Ky./Belmont) pitched a perfect ninth for his 13th save of the season. Kenny Cedel (Staten Island, N.Y./Long Island) took the loss for the Wranglers, allowing all three runs in the eighth.

Russ Brewer (Norwood, N.C./Vanderbilt) had the big hit for the Generals, a solo home run that proved to be the game winner in the eighth inning. All-Valley League selection Kurt Davidson (North Canton, Ohio/Akron) followed with a two-run double to break the game open to the 6-3 final.

Luray jumped on board first in the contest with two runs in the third inning. All-league short stop Tyler Kuhn (Louisville, Ky./West Virginia), the 2006 league MVP, hit an RBI double to plate Alec Lowrey (Weston, Fla./Louisville). Gerard Hall (Washington, D.C./Old Dominion) also scored on the play on the second of four Waynesboro errors for the night.

The Generals struck right back in the fourth with a two-run single by Brewer, who finished the night with three RBIs. Luray regained the lead, however, on a Justin Miller (Dayton, Va./Ohio State) home run to lead off the bottom of the fourth, his fifth of the season. Once again the Generals had the answer in the fifth with an RBI single by Ryan Adams (Burlington, N.C./Elon).

The 3-3 score held up until the three-run outburst by the Generals in the eighth. Waynesboro finished the night with six runs on nine hits and four errors. Luray scored its three runs on six hits with no errors.

Brewer finished 2-for-4 with three RBIs and a run scored. Adams also had two hits with a run and RBI. Davidson was 1-for-2 with two RBIs and a walk. Luray had no players with multiple hits. Kuhn and Miller had the only RBIs.

Box Score and Play-by-Play
http://www.valleyleaguebaseball.com/Stats/12/lu0810.htm