Wednesday, July 24, 2013

TUESDAY REVIEW: Post 175 gets surprise opponent; Atlee Softball Wins State Title!

Mechanicsville Post 175 will not have their much-anticipated fifth game against West End Post 361 when the District 11 American Legion Tournament finals begin Wednesday night at LC Bird High School in Chester.

That's because Lakeside Post 125, a team that looked to be on life support just a week ago, upset #2 seeded West End 6-3 Tuesday night to advance to the tourney finals.  This prevents a rematch of the 2012 tourney final, when Post 175 beat Post 361 to finish an unbeaten schedule in District 11 both in the regular season and tournament.

Mechanicsville swept Lakeside in their three meetings in the regular season, coming from behind to win at Douglas Freeman July 8th, then winning both ends of a doubleheader by double-digit margins on July 15th.

In the double-elimination format, Lakeside will have to beat Mechanicsville twice to win the tourney, which determines the team that represents District 11 in the American Legion State Tournament, which is scheduled to begin Monday in Williamsburg.

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Congratulations to the Atlee 9/10 year old softball team for capturing the 2013 Virginia State Little League Softball Championship, defeating Gate City in the finals 11-2!

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

BREAKING: Stoudt Named Coach at Hanover

Derek Stoudt, who has spent the past five seasons as the offensive line coach for Hanover, and has served as co-offensive coordinator, has been elevated to the head coaching position for the Hawks as the beginning of practice for the 2013 season is now just 18 days away.

Stoudt, entering his sixth season on staff for the Hawks, replaces Josh Just, who resigned in June to take over as Activities Director for the school, replacing the now-retired Robert Stratton.

Hanover is the two-time defending Division 5 Regional Champions, but now are in the new "4A" state classification as VHSL realignment officially begins this school year.

Monday, July 15, 2013

ALERT: Mechanicsville Post 175 win streak now 16, tie for District title clinched....

Mechanicsville Post 175 made very quick work of Lakeside Post 125, who came closest a couple of weeks ago to ending Post 175's current 16-game winning streak, taking both ends of a doubleheader Monday night at Atlee, 11-1 and 14-3.

Taylor Crowe and Michael Thomas toed the rubber for Post 175 pitching well, allowing coach Eddie Gates to save the other arms for the doubleheader finale tomorrow against Colonial Heights at Atlee High School. First pitch of game 1 is at 5:30.

Post 175 needs one win Tuesday to officially clinch the District 11 regular season title for the 2nd year in a row. Mechanicsville is 17-2.

Sunday, July 14, 2013

ALERT: Mechanicsville Post 175 wins 14th straight!

After having two doubleheaders rained out Friday and Saturday, Mechanicsville Post 175 finally got back to action Sunday afternoon and wasted no time extending its winning streak to 14 with a 6-1 victory over South Richmond Post 137 at Atlee High School.

Combined with their 13-3 win Thursday over West End Post 361, Post 175 now has 2-1 series wins over the only two teams to beat them so far this season.

Luke Bolka and Bryant Lowry each homered for Mechanicsville, who improved to 15-2. In order to clinch the District 11 regular season title, they must take care of making up the two doubleheaders.  They'll face Lakeside Post 125 Monday and Colonial Heights Post 284P Tuesday, both days at 5:30 at Atlee High.  Winning three of the four games will ensure the district title and the top seed in next week's District Tournament.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

BASEBALL: Mechanicsville Post 175 with surprising rout of West End Post 361

Michael Thomas' pitching kept West End Post 361 from mounting big innings, while Mechanicsville Post 175 finally turned LOB's into runs in the middle innings to win 13-3 in a #1 vs. #2 District 11 showdown tonight at Deep Run High School.

Thomas struck out 11, though 2 of those ended in wild pitches with 361 batters reaching base.

Dalton Ruch opened the game with a solo home run to left in the first, but Will Black's RBI groundout into a double play plated Brandon Stein to tie the game after two.

175 left two more on base in the third (five total in the first four innings), and 361 took advantage of a wild pitch and a mental lapse to take the lead in the fourth when John Lloyd walked, then, advanced to second after a double play and scored from second when a Thomas wild pitch was retrieved in an aloof manner by catch Mitch Keeler for a 2-1 Post 361 lead.

It was the fifth inning where Post 175 took control, loading the bases five times, scoring three runs to retake the lead, using five singles and a walk to generate the runs.  And yes, they left two more stranded.

In the sixth, Michael Thomas nearly took the head off of tonight's first base coach, Evan Swecker, on a line shot foul down the first base line. On the next pitch, Thomas roped a home run down the right field line for a 6-3 advantage.

In the seventh, they put it away, with a seven-run outburst. Five singles, two hit batsmen, and walk and a bases-clearing double by Bryant Lowry made it 13-3.

Thomas earned strikeouts #10 and #11 on Chad Shaw and Cole Hyman to end the game.

Post 361 drops to 15-4, but firmly in the #2 seed in District 11 if the season ended today. Post 175 improves to 14-2, but still must play five games in three days, including doubleheaders Friday (home to Post 125) and Saturday (at Colonial Heights), so a regular season championship is still far away.

But it will help immensely that head coach Eddie Gates never had to go to the bullpen, saving the rest of his pitching depth for the grueling weekend stretch still to come.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

NEW NAME, SAME COMMITMENT!

If you look at the top of the page, you'll note a slight change in our name.

HanoverCountySports.org has become HanoverCountySports.net.

This was done for two reasons.

1) A "dot org" domain is for non-profit organizations. HCS Media is beginning to partner with businesses and companies in promotional and advertising endeavors which will not only benefit them and our company, but students that we cover, as soon as we will unveil plans for the "HCS Media Scholarship Foundation".  Thus, to align our name with our stated objectives, we changed from .org to .net.

2) This matches the Hanover site name with the name of our new sister site for Henrico coverage, HenricoCountySports.net.

PLEASE BOOKMARK our new web address.  This is where we will be posting in-depth news, interviews and analysis, videos, and is the home for live online sports coverage on our NEW "HCS Media Network".

Our exciting journey continues, and we couldn't have done it without your support of our web, Facebook and Twitter endeavors.  THANK YOU!

UPDATES: Rockville Softball, Football Schedules 2013

SOFTBALL: The Rockville 8U team will share the Babe Ruth state championship with New Kent, as the teams were unable to agree on a makeup date for their championship game which was postponed Sunday due to a storm in Stafford County.  Both teams advance to the Southeast Regional Tournament, which begins on Thursday July 18th and will be held this year at RF&P Park in Glen Allen.

FOOTBALL: The 2013 schedules are officially out as of today from the VHSL!

We tweeted the schedules of all four county teams earlier this afternoon AND they are also listed NOW on our Facebook page!  Click HERE to go to our page to see them, and, while you're there, please like our page.  There you'll find news updates, scores, and exclusive photo galleries!

Sunday, July 07, 2013

ROCKVILLE SOFTBALL WINS MULTIPLE STATE TITLES!!!

On a hot, muggy Sunday afternoon in Stafford County, at two different locations, Rockville softball made itself known to the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Going unbeaten, the 16U team came from behind to defeat New Kent 8-6 to win the Babe Ruth State Championship. New Kent played small ball early, taking advantage of Rockville lapses to take a 4-1 lead in the first inning.  But Rockville fought back, taking the lead in the 3rd 6-4.

New Kent wasn't done, plating two more to tie the game, but Anna Wells scored the would-be championship run and Rockville added one more in the 6th for insurance. Olivia Harris shut down the New Kent offense when it mattered most and got a strikeout to finish the game and clinch the title.

Rockville advances to the Babe Ruth Southeast Regionals beginning July 18th at RF&P Park at Glen Allen.

(Rockville 16U pitcher Olivia Harris deals Sunday in the state championship game against New Kent...)

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The 10U team from Rockville will be joining 16U at the Southeast Regionals and will, too, wear the moniker of "State Champions". In a contest closer than the final score indicated, Rockville defeated Summit Point 7-1 for the state crown. Pitcher Jaime Hughes had an inside-the-park home run in the second inning to open the scoring and kept the Tsunami from scoring until there were two outs in the final inning.  She, too, got a strikeout to clinch the championship.

(Rockville 10U starter Jaime Hughes deals from the circle in the state final victory over Summit Point...)

The 8U team also qualified for the Southeast Regionals by advancing to their State Championship game, defeating Stafford, the host team, in the semifinals. The 8U championship game versus Manassas was postponed this evening due to storms in Northern Virginia.

Follow us on Twitter (@hanoversports) for complete coverage of the 8U final when it happens, and join us beginning July 18th as we follow all three teams at the Babe Ruth Southeast Regional!