After yesterday gave us every kind of weather imaginable including sleet. The cold weather is gone and the sun is shining on the 66th Annual West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC) Baseball Tournament. This years field is made up of four teams from each division split into two pools. The four teams in each pool are guaranteed 3 games before the top team from each pool advances to the championship game Sunday afternoon with the winner of that game getting an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. Yesterday's games were interesting with Charleston, Seton Hill, West Virginia Wesleyan, and Alderson-Broaddus all picking up victories. One of the most interesting games to me was the game between WV Wesleyan and Fairmont State which went 12 innings. Down 4-3 in the Bottom of the 8th inning, Spencer Webley of WV Wesleyan launched a 2-run homer off the light tower over the wall in Left-Center field to give Wesleyan the 5-4 lead heading into the 9th inning before Fairmont State tied the game with a double from Nick Hallis to tie the game at 5. The game would go to the 12th before Matt Edwards tripled to score Webley to give WV Wesleyan a 6-5 win in 12 innings. Today should be another exciting day of games with the possibility of both pools coming down to one game tomorrow. To follow all the action visit the official WVIAC Tournament Page which will provide you with all the information about this weekend's tournament action.
(View of the Action from the Point)
I also attended my first Altoona Curve Game of the season this past Wednesday for one of the annual 10:30 Education Day Games. This year the first morning game at People's Natural Gas Park included bonus baseball as the Curve and the Bowie Baysox had to finish their game from the night before which was stopped for rain going into the 4th inning then they played a full 7 inning game following that. The Curve dropped both games of the doubleheader and their season has not been going very well. The good news is that they sit at 13-19 overall but in their division every team is struggling at the start except the Akron Aeros who are 22-9 overall, 6 games ahead of first place and 9.5 ahead of the Curve in the division standings.
(Scoreboard Image of Manny Machado, One of the Top Orioles Prospects)
During my visit to the park the biggest chance I noticed was the change of the name from Blair County Ballpark to People's Natural Gas Park. The signs were changed to reflect the new name, and there were some new sponsors but other than that the park is the same and still provides the same fun and entertainment that it always has.
Stop back to the site tomorrow for a recap of today's WVIAC Action.
-Ed S.
The Flood City Sports Fan
No comments:
Post a Comment