Yesterday, over 50 Valley Leaguers gathered for the yearly All-Star game, held in Harrisonburg.

After batting practice, the position players went down the left field line to run the 60-yard dash, held in front of a number of scouts. The winner, to no one’s surprise, was Staunton’s Jay Charleston, whose time was listed at 6.4 seconds.

Next came the home run derby. It was a battle for two rounds, but then Strasburg’s Brandon Quaranta found his rhythm, and won the contest going away.

Brandon was tied with New Market’s Jake Washer with 4 home runs after the first two rounds, but Quaranta wowed the crowd with 12 longballs in the final round, ending the competition. In fact, after Brandon hit his 8th home run, Washer’s teammates started gently heckling Quaranta from the left field stands, as they realized the battle was over.

Quaranta ended up with 16 total home runs, Washer 8, Andrew Zban (Purcellville) 3, and Trevin Esquarra (Purcellville) and Tyler Martin (Strasburg) each hit one.

The second class of VBL Hall of Famers came next. Four of the inductees, Wayne Comer, Bo Trumbo, Sam Perlozzo, and Mo Weber, were in attendance. Each received a plaque that will be displayed in New Market, the home of the VBL Hall of Fame. Each present inductee also received a few minutes in between innings to speak to the crowd. (John Kruk, C.C. Michael, and Earl Shirkey were also inducted in absentia.)

The game itself saw the pitchers mostly dominate. As is often the case when pitchers throw one inning each, they can show their best stuff, and last night was no exception. The South’s nine pitchers remained unblemished, striking out 12 total batters, even though the North had a few baserunners throughout.

The South scored the only run it would really need in the 6th inning, when Payton Robertson singled and stole second, Joseph Bellini also singled, and Eric Jones hit a broken-bat grounder to bring Robertson home. The team scored twice more in the 8th, one on Caleb Walls’s RBI single, and the other on Kyle Battle’s single. In the 9th, Luke Robinson scored on a wild pitch, and Robertson scored again, this time on an Eric Jones double play grounder.

Ty Andrus (Harrisonburg and Wingate) was named the South’s MVP, as he went 4-5, and Danton Hyman (Woodstock and Newberry) was the North’s, as he also had a multi-hit game.

Many, many pictures to come!

(Click here to read the Valley League’s story on the game.)