Well, if we were looking for a “normal” end to the Valley League regular season, then I suppose we’re disappointed. And we’re still not quite there.

Let’s start with news about the play-in game between Charlottesville and Covington- the game to determine the #4 seed in the South. After the first attempt to play the game, on Monday, the game was suspended in the 6th inning with the Lumberjacks leading 4-0.

Weather made the game impossible Tuesday as well. Therefore, the game will (hopefully) be concluded Wednesday afternoon at Staunton (at 4:30). The winner of the game will then immediately play the first seed in the South, the Staunton Braves. Hopefully we will be back on track after today.

We did have two playoff games last night- both in the North:

1. The Front Royal Cardinals rode the arms of Luke Burnidge and Randy Dobnak to take game one of the series, 4-0. Burnidge threw 6 1/3 shutout innings, and then Dobnak finished off the last 2 2/3. The Cards scored three times in the 5th inning when Colby Dishmond singled in Drew Small, and later Edgar Lebron and Dishmond scored on errors. That was all Burnidge and Dobnak needed. Game two is tonight at Woodstock.

2. The Strasburg Express exploded for 4 runs in the bottom of the 8th inning to beat Aldie, 6-2, in the first game of their series. Tied at 2, the Express scored on four straight plays in the 8th. First, Josh Cushing singled in Trevor Rucker. Next, Chris Akmon hit a sacrifice fly to left field to score Drew Johnson. Then Dustin Woody (whose name isn’t even capitalized in the boxscore) tripled in Cushing, and came in to score in the next at-bat when Brandon Harvell hit an infield single. That sequence did in the Senators. Danny Rafferty got the win for the Express; Bo Wilson received the loss for the Senators. Game two is tonight in Aldie.

The Harrisonburg Turks will host the Waynesboro Generals in game one of their series tonight.