The first Generals alum selected was Mark Lamm, who went in the sixth round to the Atlanta Braves. Lamm, a 6-4, 215-pound righthander from Vanderbilt, was 1-0 with a 0.53 ERA in 11 relief appearances for Waynesboro in 2010.

Rob Kral went in the 10th round to the San Diego Padres. Kral, a 5-9, 190-pound catcher from the College of Charleston, hit .294/.456./.426 with a homer and 20 RBI for Waynesboro in 2009.

Casey McElroy went in the 11th round to San Diego. McElroy, a 5-8, 180-pound shortstop from Auburn, hit .409/.500/.500 in six games in Waynesboro in 2009. McElroy’s ’09 season in the Valley was cut short by injury.

Rhett Stafford went in the 22nd round to Oakland. Stafford, a 6-3, 231-pound outfielder from Marshall, hit .297.373/.466 with four homers and 19 RBI for Waynesboro in 2009.

Tony Caldwell went in the 24th round to the Florida Marlins. Caldwell, a 5-10, 195-pound catcher from Auburn, hit .304/.379./.478 with five homers and 31 RBI in Waynesboro in 2009.

Drew Turocy also went in the 24th round to the Boston Red Sox. Turocy, a 6-3, 190-pound center fielder from Akron, hit .370/.410/.443 with a homer and 31 RBI in Waynesboro in 2010.

Grant Buckner went in the 26th round to the Chicago White Sox. Buckner, a 6-2, 225-pound shortstop from West Virginia University, hit .282 with Waynesboro in 2008.

Jeremy Dobbs went in the 33rd round to the Seattle Mariners. Dobbs, a 6-1, 170-pound lefthander from Austin Peay, was 0-0 with a 6.55 ERA in 10 appearances for Waynesboro in 2009.

Story by Chris Graham

Jarryd Summers struck out 10 in seven innings, and Mark Lamm made his effort stand up with two scoreless innings of relief, as Waynesboro posted an important 4-3 win over Front Royal at Mathers Park Wednesday night.

The win pushed Waynesboro ever closer to clinching a playoff berth. With Woodstock’s 8-6 loss at Rockbridge, the Generals reduced their magic number to clinching a playoff bid to three.

Summers (2-1) was solid all night long, giving up three runs on five hits to go with his 10 Ks. Summers has now struck out 23 in 19 innings pitched this season.

Lamm struck out three in his two innings out of the pen. The 6-4, 215-pound righty from Vanderbilt has yet to give up a run in nine appearances and has struck out 20 in 14 and a third innings.

The Generals jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first off losing pitcher Blake Ford (2-3) with four consecutive hits with two outs in the inning. Drew Turocy and Grant Fillipitch hit back-to-back doubles, followed up by a pair of singles by Chase Worthington and Cody Hudson, to get the early runs on the board.

Front Royal tied it at 2-2 in the second on a two-run triple by Sean Jamieson. Waynesboro answered in the bottom of the second with a sacrifice-fly RBI by Drew Turocy that scored Alan Stoupa. The lead was extended to 4-2 in the fifth when Chase Worthington led off that frame with a double and came around to score on an A.J. Albee error on a grounder off the bat of Hudson.

The Cardinals tightened things up in the sixth when Jamieson picked up his third RBI of the night by drawing a bases-loaded walk from Summers, who got out of that inning by striking out Steve Rogers one batter later to strand three Front Royal baserunners.

The Cards got two on with two out in the seventh off Summers before the Generals pitcher induced an inning-ending grounder off the bat of three-hole hitter Matt Holland.

Lamm allowed just one baserunner in his two innings on the mound, a two-out eighth-inning walk to Jamieson, before he K’d Rogers to end that threat.

Trio share book, experiences with students at Berkeley Glenn

Story by Jenny Hypes
jenny.hypes@emu.edu
 

Never give up when things get rough. That was the moral of the story in the book Wilma Unlimited, read by three members of the Waynesboro Generals baseball team to a group of fourth- and fifth-grade students at Berkeley Glenn Elementary School.

The players, who are being hosted by the Brian and Diane Lundstrom family, came in bright and early Thursday morning to read and talk to the students. The story that they shared was about Wilma Rudolph, who was a three-time gold medalist in track, born prematurely and stricken with polio at a young age.

Coming in and reading to the children is not something the guys had to do, Mark Lamm, a junior at Vanderbilt, said.

“It’s a good cause. This was a good story, and it gives these kids a chance to hear it from someone else other than their teacher. We thought it would be good to do something to give back,” Lamm said.

After the book was read, the students had a short discussion about the meaning of the book. When giving other examples about rough times and not giving up, Diane Lundstrom, a teacher at BGES, turned to the Generals and said, “I’m sure these boys have had a hard game every now and then.”

Michael Reed, a sophomore at LSU, replied, “Story of my life!”

Following that discussion, the children were given an opportunity to ask the Generals questions about baseball, the main one being, “How fast do you pitch? Lamm answered, “We all pitch right around 90 mph, which is faster than most people drive.”

A look of astonishment came across the children’s faces as they tried to think of something else to ask.

To show their appreciation for the players coming in and talking to them, each of the children made a card, complete with a picture of a flaming baseball, for the Generals. In return the men gave a little more of their time to answer some more questions about baseball and sign the hats, bats and baseballs the kids had brought in. They also awarded all nine children with passes to get into any General game for free.

Story by Chris Graham

John Fillipitch may never get to leave.

“Some of the guys were talking about that in the dugout. He picked a good weekend to be here,” said his son, Grant, who hit two homers with dad in the stands at Mathers Park to lead the Waynesboro Generals to a 6-4 win over the visiting Haymarket Senators Saturday night.

Fillipitch hit his home runs, numbers two and three on the season, in the first and fifth. The fifth-inning shot gave Waynesboro a 4-2 lead, which starting pitcher Daniel Bradshaw lost in the sixth as a result of a controversial call at first base that gave Eric Stamets a bunt single. A two-out single by Rudy Flores eventually scored Stamets, and then an error by shortstop Zephan Guyear allowed Austin Schultz to cross the plate to tie the game at 4-4.

The Senators left the bases loaded in the sixth and again in the seventh – and left 16 on base all told on the night. The Generals made them pay in the eighth when Cody Hudson led off with a bunt single, advanced to second on a sacrifice by Jared King, then after T.J. Cuban reached base on a fielder’s choice, Hudson stole third to give Waynesboro runners on the corners with one out.

Alan Stoupa worked a 3-1 count off reliever Matt Doyle, then laid down a perfect squeeze bunt past Doyle that scored Hudson from third. Stoupa later came around to score on a single by Jon Clinard that gave winning pitcher Mark Lamm some cushion in the ninth.

“We were thinking squeeze all along,” Waynesboro manager Derek McDaniel said.

“We talked about it. I had the green light to swing away at the first pitch, but I’ve been struggling at the plate lately, so I decided to take one for the team,” Stoupa said. “When Cody stole third, and it got to 3-1, I just knew to had to get the ball in play, and we’d take the lead.”

Lamm pitched a perfect ninth to pick up his first win of the season.

“It feels good to get the monkey off our backs,” Lamm said.

Bradshaw worked around trouble all night in his six innings of work on the mound – but held the Senators to four runs, three earned, despite giving up 11 hits, walking three and hitting a batter.

“He deserved to go out up 4-2, but things didn’t work out that way. But he battled all night,” McDaniel said.

The win breaks a four-game losing streak for Waynesboro.

“We’ve been playing hard. Now we get this win, and we can get out there tomorrow night and play a little looser,” McDaniel said.

Story by Chris Graham

A six-run second gave Luray the early lead, and the Wranglers cruised to a 9-2 win over Waynesboro Friday night.

Starter Jeremy Fitzgerald (1-2) gave up seven runs, six earned, in two and two-thirds innings of work for Waynesboro, which lost its fourth in a row to fall into a tie for eighth place in the Valley League with Staunton, a 2-0 winner over Haymarket Friday night.

Johnny Sedlock (1-0) got the win with two and two-thirds innings of scoreless relief.

Terrell Thompson was 3-for-5 for the Generals at the plate.

Story by Chris Graham

Taylor Sandefur pitched seven and two-thirds strong innings, and Waynesboro was able to overcome a wild eighth-inning rally by Luray, en route to posting a 3-2 win over the Wranglers at Mathers Park Monday night.

Sandefur (2-0) had a shutout going into the eighth when Luray put runners on second and third with two out. Luray leaoff hitter Justin Fredejas hit what appeared to be an inning-ending grounder to third, but umpire C.R. Thompson ruled that third baseman Grant Fillipitch’s throw had pulled first baseman T.J. Kuban off the bag at first. Kuban briefly protested the call by showing Thompson that he had fieled the throw cleanly, and in the process a hustling Raiko Alfonso scored all the way from second base to turn what had been a 3-0 Generals lead into a 3-2 ballgame.

Sandefur was then lifted for Mark Lamm, who gave up a single to left to Eric Phillips after Fredejas had stolen second. Fredejas tried to score on the play, but Waynesboro leftfielder Terrell Thompson gunned Fredejas down at the plate for the third out of the inning.

Lam retired the Wranglers in the ninth to record his first save of the season.

Sandefur lowered his ERA to 0.76 in 23.2 innings this season.

Drew Turocy had two hits for Waynesboro.