Two Matoaca baseball alums received some of the highest individual honors this week for Randolph Macon. Senior Travis Lodge was named the Conference’s Player of the Year while sophomore Rick Spiers earned All-ODAC first team honors. Spiers picked up the Most Outstanding Player in the ODAC tournament just days later. More importantly for the two South Chesterfield natives, the Yellow Jackets downed Hampden-Sydney 6-5 in the ODAC Championship game this past Sunday afternoon. “We put ourselves in a good position in the tournament and for after the tournament,” Spiers said. “We’ve been playing hard, we’re taking this one game at…
Browsing: Baseball
Opening day is always a big day for the Central Chesterfield Little League and their players. Brian Reed, CCLL president welcomed the 52 teams in the league along with team managers, coaching staff, team moms and their families that kept the yearly tradition and weathered the rain on Saturday during the opening ceremonies. The fun games and activities scheduled for the rest of the day had been dampened and most families left after the opening ceremonies. No pictures, no cake walk, no dunk tank, but a few did visit some of the sponsor booths before they packed up and picked…
Matoaca alum and Yellow Jackets senior Travis Lodge started the season hot. Over the past couple of weeks, he has gotten even hotter. Both the ODAC and D3baseball.com have taken notice of his outstanding play. On March 28, Lodge was named Old Dominion Athletic Conference player of the week. In that span of seven days, the opposition hardly had a chance. The former Warriors collected 11 hits over 16 at-bats, good for a .688 batting average. He launched four home runs, scored 11 runs and knocked in 12. His slugging percentage was an eye-popping 1.438. To put that in perspective,…
A local duo comprised of two Thomas Dale alums have been carrying a large portion of the offensive load for the Tigers in 2016. This past Thursday, Hampden-Sydney exploded for 16 runs in a victory over Lynchburg. A pair of sophomores, Maurice “Moe” Gothe and Brian Goodwin delivered the brunt of the offensive break out. Gothe went 3-4 with two runs scored, driving in five runs, while Goodwyn was 3-5 knocking in and scoring two runs. Gothe and Goodwyn have remained among the top five hitters on the team in terms of batting average, hits, extra base hits and RBIs. After…
Matoaca will bring a young team to the table in 2016. The loss of two big time seniors in Allie Fitzke and Taylor Patterson will hurt, but second-year coach Greg Hunt has a number of younger players ready to go, and a sophomore hurler that will be the center piece of the program for the next three seasons, Katie Higgins. Higgins dominated youth leagues prior to hitting varsity, and replaced Matoaca all-time great Jessica McCabe after she ascended to the next level at James Madison University. As a freshman, she showed her true capabilities as she twirled a one hit…
A duo of Thomas Dale alums and a Cosby graduate have been knocking the cover off the ball for the VMI Keydets. Matthew Pita, a Cosby graduate and Nathan Eaton, a former Knight have put up monster freshman seasons thus far. Pita leads the team with a .371 batting average and is tied second on the team with five home runs to go with 18 RBI. Eaton has hit .328 while playing a solid shortstop. He has added three home runs, 10 RBI and four stolen bases on the year. Collin Fleischer, a Dale graduate and sophomore at VMI has…
The Knights (16-5) took a trip to regionals, navigating through an ultra competitive Conference 3 last season on a dramatic home run by First Team All-Conference 3 honoree and catcher Hunter Vay to sink the Rapids of James River. While they fell to Forest Park in 6A South regionals, they’ll be looking to push back to that point despite a younger roster and relatively inexperienced pitching staff. Nathan Eaton, last year’s staff ace and Tommy Barron, the team’s number two pitcher have moved on the next level at VMI and Randolph-Macon respectively. Corey Johnston is also a Keydet and Cody…
A pair of Matoaca alums has performed for No. 16 Randolph-Macon baseball on a team stocked with talent from the 804. Senior Travis Lodge has emerged as a top offensive threat for the Yellow Jackets, leading the team with a .425 batting average with three home runs and ten RBIs through the team’s first 12 games. RMC is ranked in the www.d3baseball.com poll. Rick Spiers, a sophomore, served as Matoaca’s swiss army knife during his high school career but has settled in as a solid pitching option after a standout freshman year. Also capable with the stick, Spiers has rapped…
Corey Johnston, a member of Colonial Height’s American Legion Post 284’s Senior Pirate’s baseball team, was awarded the top scholarship that can be bestowed on an American Legion Baseball player from the American Legion Department of Virginia during the annual end of season Baseball Banquet at Post 284. Cory is the son of Daniel and Shelly Johnston of Chesterfield and is a 2015 graduate of Thomas Dale High School. Corey graduated with honors and plans to attend Virginia Military Institute in the fall. Aside from his academic excellence, Cory volunteers with his church, the YMCA and other community and school…
Remember the name. On a team full of stars, Jay Woolfolk burned the brightest at the Boys Invitational Baseball (BIB) tournament in Colonial Heights last week. He used a big stick and a cannon of an arm to guide Chesterfield Baseball Clubs and CBC National to its fifth straight BIB title as they defeated Williamsburg 5-1 Saturday night to take their most recent crown. “It feels great for me as a coach, but I feel better for these kids,” Manager Randy Womack said. “We have good baseball in Chesterfield.” Woolfolk had a monster tournament, winning both the Most Valuable Player…