I won't be able to provide too many details, definitely not the important ones, but the Green Hornets defeated RHS tonight 4-2 and quite likely sewed up the Shenandoah District regular season title. However, the Xs and Os of the game were almost completely put on the back burner because the game was delayed twice, once for lightning and a second time for apparent fan behavior. But please understand that a lot of what I will report is speculation.

As for the game itself, Wilson scored twice in the first and added a run in the second to move ahead 3-0. Riverheads meanwhile left the bases loaded in the second without scoring but did push across a run in the third to close to within 3-1. They then held Wilson scoreless in the home half of the third.

As the action moved into the fourth, we began to hear thunder but it appeared to be in the distance. Riverheads failed to score in the fourth and Wilson was batting when the announcement came to clear the stadium due to lightning. That was not a new experience for most of us and in fact Riverheads fans had been through it at a Waynesboro football game just a season or two ago.

I personally ran an errand during the delay and when I returned to Wilson, the game had indeed resumed. However even as I walked across the parking lot, I saw a flash of lightning and worried that we might not yet be finished with the weather.

As I settled back into the bleachers, I checked with other fans and of course looked at the scoreboard and determined that each team had scored a run........Wilson had managed one in the home half of the fourth and Riverheads had apparently just scored as it was 4-2 in the top of the fifth. The Gladiators were soon retired and Wilson came to bat in the bottom of the fifth.

Of course the discussion in the stands was all about the weather at that point and whether or not the game would be completed or if it might be called at some point, since it had reached the required minimum of 4 1/2 innings and therefore could be considered a "completed" game. But as it turned out, that part of the discussion was about to take a back seat to what happened next.

Wilson came to bat in the fifth and Riverheads quickly recorded two outs. One of those involved nailing a runner at third to take away a Hornet threat. Soon afterwards, without warning, we heard the PA announcer say something to the effect of "All fans need to vacate the stands and the game will continue when the stands are empty."

However to the best of my knowledge, that announcement had nothing to do with weather, even thought it had already rained while I was out and was raining lightly at the time the announcement came through. Instead, and this is part of that speculation that I mentioned back in the first paragraph, apparently a decision had been made that the game was going to continue, but without fans.

Now that would seem to imply that some fan or fans had been making the game difficult for the officials and/or players and the idea was to allow it to continue in peace. However, I cannot even begin to tell you what may have happened or what might have been said to cause such a decision to be made.

You see, the Wilson layout is such that home fans have bleachers along the first base line and visitors have a set looking directly at third base. However, fans from both sides also line up behind the screen as close as possible to home plate, wanting to have a better vantage point. That is of course understandable.

So during my first and second sessions watching the game, I was in the visiting bleachers. So if things were being said or shouted at the umpires from either dugout or from any of those fans closer to home plate, it would have been completely out of my earshot. The only thing I heard from someone in my section, and of course it fits into the category of hearsay, is that a Wilson player may have spit on a Riverheads player at some point.

So don't quote me on who said what, who did what, etc. but I did in fact witness the next parts of the proceedings and I have to admit it was all a first for me. Once the announcement was made to clear the field, everyone of course complied. However most of the Riverheads fans walked out through the main entrance gate (actually the ONLY gate) and were planning to watch the rest of the game from behind the outer fence. My guess is that a few decided to do that, and others followed suit, assuming that it would be acceptable.

Like everybody else I was standing among those fans waiting to see what would happen next. Well a lady from Wilson, I certainly assume an administrator, came out of the press box, addressed those Riverheads folks and apparently told them they had to leave altogether. I was not close enough to hear her exact words but based on the reaction she got, that was clearly the gist of her message.

Her message was not well-received to put it mildly. Among the comments I heard tossed back at her were things like "We did what you said...we left the stands." and "Are you going to give all these people their money back?" and "If we leave, what happens if one of our kids gets hurt. What are we supposed to do then?"

At that point, I moved further away, planning to watch the rest of the event from across the street near the tennis courts. From that vantage point, I could still see RHS players milling around the infield and I would have been able to see if the game had in fact resumed.

After 5-10 minutes or so, a pair of sheriff cars arrived. My assumption would be that the Wilson staff had called them to help disperse the crowd. I left for good at that point and since the Shenandoah District website shows the game as a 4-2 Wilson win, my guess is that it was never resumed and that the 4 1/2 inning score stood as the final. I suppose it is possible that they finished all seven innings without any further scoring, but somehow I doubt if that was the case.

Again I will emphasize that I have no personal knowledge about what transpired that resulted in all of that chaos. It was likely just a case of a few people going a little overboard. As I said the layout is such that only the people closest to home plate would have heard all or most of what was being said or yelled at the umpires. Those of us in the cheap seats would have heard only what was said in our little section and tonight, along third base anyway, there was nothing worse than you would hear at any game.

The bottom line is that it is too bad that sports in general are getting more and more frustrating for everyone involved, and it will be a shame if we get to the point around here where we make the news for stuff like this, just like we read in the papers on occasion. Everyone is on edge these days about a lot of things and something as innocent as a high school baseball game should be an opportunity to put other things aside and just enjoy some friendly competition.

But tonight, for whatever reason that didn't happen. Let's hope this was a one-time thing and that no one had to be hauled off to the hoosegow over it. Above all, let's hope that lessons can be learned so that it never happens again.

Pass catchers usually performed the best...

I only noticed two tight ends but both of them...

The running back group was one of the best...

Quarterback Jason Williams was...

In region D, I'll say Union, Gate City, Tazewell and Graham will be top 4.

Tazewell may surprise some folks this season, they will have tremendous size along the line. If they develop a little bit of a run game behind the horses and keep teams from pinning their ears back and coming after the QB every play (Tazewell has been pretty one dimensional), then I think they can be dangerous. If they just drop back and toss it around, they will have another season similar to the past one. I'd like to see them become more dimensional, but I'll believe it when I see it.

Errors prove costly for Richlands. Learn from it and grow. Next up, Tazewell

Cavalier improve to 10-1 on the season

JMU signee Taylor Johnson with a perfect game with 13Ks out of 15 batters faced. Sophomore Jillian Smith with 2 more HRs and 5 RBI, while Johnson and Maci Mitchell with 4 hits and 3 hits, respectively.

Class 6 Cosby hands KW their first loss of the season. Five unearned runs definitely didn't help the Lady Cavs cause, but take nothing away from Cosby. They're 10-4 on the season at the highest level and games like this will only benefit KW once the postseason begins. The Lady Cavs also still have Class 3 power New Kent and Class 4 Atlee left to play in the regular season and the team will definitely be battle tested come playoff time. KW is now 12-1 on the season

It was definitely a good night to be a Gladiator as the Riverheads' baseball and softball teams combined efforts on their adjoining diamonds and emptied all four sets of bleachers in less than 90 minutes with a pair of victories over visiting Stuarts Draft. In the surprise game of the afternoon, the Lady Gladiators run-ruled SD 12-1. I believe that is at least their third or fourth straight win. Word in the stands was that SD had won the first match-up 14-3 over at their place. It's almost enough to make you wish for a rubber match to see who really IS the best team.

As for the boys on the baseball diamond, they picked up their second 4-1 victory of the week in a game that pretty much followed the same pattern as Tuesday's win over Staunton. The teams coasted along in the early stages with a pitchers' duel, before the Gladiators used a big inning to jump out in front and hold on for the win.

As you can tell from the score, the pitching duo of Levi Dunlap (first four innings) and Brody Phillips (final three) got the job done on the mound as they kept the Cougars from any major damage. However, the visitors did not go quietly as they had men in scoring position, to the best of my recollection, in four of their seven at-bats. But Riverheads was nearly perfect on defense today and made some great plays, one in particular, to keep the Cougars from making the game closer.

If you had to name the heroes of the game, in addition to the solid pitching effort, it would be the Austin Brothers, Logan and David. Logan drove in three of the four RHS runs with a triple and a solo home run, whereas David got the Big Red bats going in the bottom of the third with a double to left field but also made the defensive play of the night when he nailed a perfect throw from right field that enabled the Gladiators to cut down a run at the plate that would have made the game 3-2 at that point.

In the very early stages, SD looked to be the sharper of the teams as they had their first threat in the second, although they failed to score. Meanwhile their pitcher (Gates I believe) mowed the Gladiators down 1-2-3 in each of the first two frames before David Austin delivered the first big hit in the bottom of the third.

His hit went over the left fielder's head and rolled to the fence, The number nine hitter, Trevor Lilley, then hit one the same direction that landed in front of the same outfielder. Those two hits came with one out and the Cougars recorded the second out before the Big Red could score. Instead of getting out of the jam, SD made a questionable decision to try and throw out a base-stealer at second, which allowed a Big Red teammate to sneak home for the first run of the game.

That gave the Gladiators the break they needed and Logan Austin smacked his triple to deep right center to drive home two runs and give the Gladiators some breathing room. The score remained 3-0 until the Cougars made their best move to get back in the game in the top of the fifth. The big base knock was a solid double to deep right that chased David Austin all the way to the fence where he made a valiant effort to catch it but could not haul it in.

The Cougars soon found themselves with runners at second and third with one out. The next batter sliced one into right field. The Cougar runner on third of course scored easily, but the Draft made the mistake of challenging DA's arm. He threw a perfect strike to the plate and the Gladiator catcher tagged the second runner a good 10 feet before he got to the plate. A 3-2 score at that point might have made for a different game.

Instead, Logan hit the Big Red's third homer of the season (brother David having hit the first and Henley Dunlap the second) to give RHS an insurance run and SD never threatened again. Still the Cougar fans had to be pleased with their team's effort as it was much better than the 12-0 shellacking they had taken at home back in the district opener.

So once again the Big Red followed its interesting pattern of having closer games at home, while absolutely bombarding the home teams in the three district games they have played on the road. In addition to the just-mentioned SD win, they have won 15-4 at Fort Defiance and 22-0 at Buffalo Gap. With their next game being a trip to Wilson on Tuesday the 30th, it will be quite interesting to see if that trend continues.

Meanwhile as for the Lady Gladiators......keep doing what you're doing!

Rife with another 14 Strikeouts. The lady blues move to 12-2 on the season

Sean Robertson - WTVR CBS 6​

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Tom Hall will be back on the sidelines this season!
According to sources, the former Manchester HC has been named Head Football Coach at Prince George!
He replaces Scott Girolmo, who stepped down after three seasons.

Daniel Burton with a complete game shutout and the Cavaliers rang up 14 hits as a team.

Taylor Johnson (2 IP) and Jillian Smith (5 IP) combine on a one hitter. The Lady Cavs put their undefeated record (12-0) on the line tomorrow against Class 6 Cosby.

Sometimes it only takes that one surge to post a victory and that was the case tonight in Greenville as the homestanding Gladiators strung some key hits together, one in particular, on the way to a 4-1 win over visiting Staunton. With the win, the Gladiators are now 4-2 in district play after the first swing through the schedule and are therefore still within striking distance of league-leading Wilson.

Tonight's game was a pitchers' duel for the most part. The Gladiators got six strong innings out of starter Ethan Fitzgerald and a 12-pitch seventh inning relief effort out of David Austin, who set the final three Storm batters down without any trouble. Meanwhile, Staunton started number 9 (didn't catch the name) and he went the distance, tossing 98 pitches but gave up just a handful of hits to the Gladiators, who were coming off Friday's 22-0 demolition of Buffalo Gap when they couldn't be stopped.

On this night, those potent bats were not as productive but they finally broke through and scored all four RHS runs in the home half of the fourth. Logan Austin and Camden Huffer got the party started with back-to-back hits, each one barely squeezing inside the two baselines. Austin came around to score to make it 1-0, but it momentarily looked like that might be all the Gladiators would muster as The Storm buckled down and recorded a pair of outs.

However, with the game very much in the balance, first baseman Henley Dunlap, who had his first homer of the season during the Gap rout, smacked one over the right fielder's head that went all the way to the softball fence line. That drove in two more crucial runs to make it 3-0. Moments later, Dunlap scored himself when an attempted throw to third got away and he was able to score the Big Red's fourth run.

Staunton, which recorded only two or three hits at the most, finally got on the board in the top of the sixth with some aggressive base running. They had moved a guy into scoring position, maybe for the first time in the game, and had the chance to send him home. It momentarily looked like RHS was going to make the play needed to preserve the shutout but a throw in the direction of home plate sailed out of play and allowed the visitors to score their only run of the game.

With the win, the Gladiators continued their unusual pattern of having close games at home but running away with big-time road wins. In this now-complete first cycle through the district, they won three road games by a combined total of 49-4 but tonight's game was the first district win at home, after losing the first two to Wilson (1-0) and Waynesboro (3-1).

With that in mind, won't it be interesting to see what they can do at Wilson next week? But first things first as they will host Stuarts Draft Thursday afternoon, a team they walloped 12-0 on its own field to start the district race.

It then won't be too long before we can start talking about playoff positioning, which will impact a number of teams since the Shenandoah District has three Class 3 teams (Wilson, Staunton, and Waynesboro), three in Class 2 (Riverheads, Stuarts Draft and Fort Defiance), leaving Buffalo Gap as the district's only Class 1 team. If football and basketball were any indication, we should see at least 4-5 of our teams advancing to post-season play.

Also tasting victory tonight were the Lady Gladiators who smoked Staunton 15-0 in a 4 1/2 inning slaughter rule game. You can now read the softball scoreboard from the baseball bleachers, which comes in handy, so we could see RHS put that one away early with a 9-0 first inning burst.

How did his law suit go from a couple years ago?