Three Panther teams lose in Region B tournament play on Memorial Day; Long jumper Irving Smith goes to state meet
By Sharon Kilpatrick
By identical 2-1 scores, the Rappahannock County High School softball, baseball and boys’ soccer teams fell in Region B play in games in Augusta County Monday evening, Memorial Day.
Only long jumper Irving Smith remains in competition in the post season. He finished second at Monticello High School in the Region B track meet Friday, May 25, and will compete in the state meet at Radford Saturday. In finishing second, he also broke the school record with a jump of 21 feet nine and 3/4 inches, 1/2 inch longer than the old record which was set by Fred Frye in 1976.
In the softball game, Rappahannock jumped out to a 1-0 lead over Wilson Memorial in the first inning. The Panthers’ lead held until the bottom of the third when Wilson Memorial tied the score 1-1. Wilson Memorial took the lead in the bottom of the fourth after a fielding error allowed their lead-off batter to reach first base. This was followed by two hits, scoring the lead-off batter.
Wilson Memorial had only three hits to Rappahannock’s five–a double by pitcher Crystal Heflin and singles by Katie Burke, Christina Naramore, Morgan Stephens and Amanda Smoot.
Heflin pitched the whole game striking out four, walking two and giving up three hits. Except for two errors, Rappahannock’s defense was outstanding, but in a low-scoring game with really good pitching, errors can be key. Wilson Memorial also had two errors, but Rappahannock wasn’t as successful in capitalizing on them.
Manassas Park also lost in a quarter-final game Monday evening, so the Rull Run District will not be represented in the softball state tournament.
Head softball coach Richie Burke said, “The girls have nothing to be ashamed of as they had a great season.” The final record was 10-2 in the district, 14-7 overall.
Coach Burke said he will co-coach with assistant coach Earl Mills next year, allowing him more time to work on “other improvements to the program.” Coach Mills has been working with most of the girls on next year’s team since they played rec league ball and were Junior Panthers. Coach Burke predicted another Bull Run District championship for next year’s team.
-- Sharon Kilpatrick
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