Saturday spring morning and Little League; it doesn’t get any better
Play ball! It was a picture perfect day Saturday morning at the Little League park in Milton for opening day, as a large crowd rimmed the field and filled the stands. The parade from Milton Elementary to the ballpark was led by Denny Hughes driving an old fire truck. The floats followed and just kept coming. There were five Tee Ball teams, five Machine Pitch teams, five Minor League teams and four Major League squads. Each team had a manager and two coaches and the most important - a team Mom. The Sussex County Championship team from 30 years ago and last year's 12-year-old District 3 Pat Knight championship team were introduced, followed by a trash can of numbered golf balls dropped from a ladder truck - closest to the hole wins $1,000. Hometown Hero plaques were presented to the family of Jeff Burnham, one to his wife, Tammy, the other to Jeff’s mom, Faye. A scholarship fund was established in the name of Jeff, who passed away last June at the age of 46. Jeff played, coached and umpired for many years in Milton Little League. Jeff’s niece, Sienna Burnham, threw out the first pitch to Morgan Newcomb, and his nephew Mitchell Burnham threw the first hardball to Hunter Rauch. That was followed by coach Adam Woods of the Nationals leading the opening prayer followed by Lily McDaniel singing the national anthem. Tee ballers Micah Workman of the Pirates and Trey Dickinson of the Cubs with encouragement from League President Bill Coulbourne yelled “Play Ball,” and the season of 2015 was on like a new snow cone machine.
Beacon snaps like forked lightning - The Beacon girls won 11 of 13 events to crush the field at the Jim Blades Middle School Invitational Friday night at Lake Forest. Extensive results will be in Friday’s paper. The girls scored 182.5 points, with the next closest competitor, Smyrna, scoring 66. The Beacon boys also won with 87 points over second-place Postlethwait with 77.5. Beacon is coached by Tim Bamforth and Gilbert Maull. Mariner was in the middle of the meet action with some great individual performances. Beacon's Alia Marshall won four events – the 200 meters in 26.9, 400 meters in 1:02.2, long jump at 15-feet-6-inches and triple jump at 35-feet-4-inches. Alia is an eighth-grader who also plays field hockey, basketball and lacrosse, so her future looks bright and interesting. In the boys' meet Dane Palmer won the 400 meters in 55.4 with Christian Partlow in second at 1:00.05. Palmer also won the triple jump at 37-feet-7-inches. Robert Marsh won the 1,600 in 5:16. Cory Barnes, a Mariner seventh-grader, tied the meet record in the high jump at 5-feet-10-inches.
Snippets - I’m not sure how it works, I just know the the position of head coach of girls' basketball at Cape Henlopen is currently posted. The position has been held by Lamont Hazzard, who can reapply and join the list of applicants, which I expect to be some number greater than 1 but less than 5. The Phillies are just about impossible to watch; I’ve never seen that many slap hitters in any batting order and that includes beer league softball. The Beacon soccer team coached by Justin Voorheis and Bill Bennett is currently 6-0. The University of South Carolina softball team is currently 31-17, which is an incredible number of games. Tiara Duffy, a freshman (Cape), has played in 31 games and started 11. She is batting .316 with 38 at bats. Appalachian State, where Janice Savage (CR) is in her first year as head coach of the softball team, is 12-28 on the season. Andrew Scrutchfield (Cape) leads the Stevens Ducks (8-6) lacrosse team with 29 goals and 13 assists in 11 games. Andrew is a junior. The Colorado Mesa Mavericks men’s lacrosse team, where Franc Cook (Cape, Lynchburg) is an assistant coach and graduate student working with goalies and defenders, is 7-3 on the season. The Mavericks had finished league play with a perfect 6-0 record. The Virginia Tech women’s lacrosse team with Meg Bartley (Cape) on draw control will play North Carolina at 11 a.m., Thursday, April 23, in the opening round of the ACC Tournament. Bartley is a walk-on and it's hard to believe her stellar college career is on the brink of being over. Go on now, git!
