Legion Baseball

[Rams15]

The Steuben County American Legion Baseball Tournament begins tonight in Bath ( VA ) with Corning Gray playing Wayland. The winner will take on Bath Wednesday evening at 6:30 at the VA center. There are many local high school stars who will compete over the course of the next couple of days if you get a chance to visit. The Corning team has Josh Murdough ( C-West star ) who is shceudled to attend Mansfield in the fall. Jeremy Blackwell ( West Va. ) also competes for Corning. Brandon Lewis, ( Addison ) Sam Wood, ( Campbell Savona ) Ben Geist, ( CCC ) Tyler Miserak, ( C-East ) and Dan Telehany ( C-East ) are a few of their marquee players. Wayland has 2006 All State player Joe Wallace, ( Avoca ) Joe Albee, ( FLCC ) Nick George, ( 2007 all state player from Alfred Almond ) and 2007 WayCo grad Justin Recktenwald. Bath sends out Brett Havens, Mike Rossi, Billy Crowe, Montana Yastremski, Matt Whedbee, Sean Lyke, Drew Seager, Lucas Burns, & Justin Brown. ALL will be returning next season for Bath during the high school season.

There is some discussion as to how many teams Steuben County will send to the District tournament. Hornell dropped their American Legion Team last week forfeiting all regular season games and also exiting the County Tournament. The rules state that a county gets 1 district representative for every 4 teams. We will have to wait and see if, Hornell dropping out, reduces Steuben County's representation to 1 team or remains at 2 !?

[Rams15]

Corning West's Josh Murdough was too much for Wayland to handle last evening in a staedy drizzle at the Bath V.A. He recorded a dozen strike outs and only gave up one hit. In the 4th inning Wayland hit a monsterous shot into the expansive left field area at the VA only to be tracked down by Corning's left fielder, Mike Speroni. ( C-West ) That was a key play in the game that prevented Wayland from placing their lead off hitter on third base with no outs to start the inning.

Nick George ( Alfred Almond ) pitched through the 5th inning and kept Corning off balance with his curveball. I did not keep a scorebook, but I believe that Corning had less than 5 hits throught the entire game. Ben Geist had Corning's lone RBI with the other run scoring on a passed ball.

Weather permitting, Corning now faces Bath in the winner's bracket game tonight at 6:30 at the Bath V.A. The loser will then play Wayland on Thursday. The survivor of the loser's bracket will then have to win two games in a row to win the county tournament. 2 of the 3 teams will advance to the District Championships being held in Newark, N.Y. next week.