After a break over the Independence Day weekend, six of the seven town teams in the Connecticut River Valley Baseball League return to action next Sunday, each of them hoping to gain ground on the undefeated Putney Fossils. The Fossils enjoy another week off after running off nine straight victories to start the season. Regular season play will end in early August with two weeks of playoffs to determine the winner of the 2014 CRVBL Cup.
Heading into this weekend’s play, Putney holds a game and a half lead over the Walopole Wild Blue, who host the Brattleboro River Rats at 1:00 Sunday afternoon. The defending league champion Claremont Cardinals are three games back as they prepare to take on the Walpole Maples at Barnes Park in Claremont at 11 Sunday morning. The Newport Polar Bears and Sunapee Old Lakers are separated by just a half game as they square off in a battle for fourth place at Bates Memorial Field in Newport Sunday at 11. Admission to all games is free, and you can learn more about the area’s adult amateur baseball league at www.crvbl.org .
Current individual leaders include
Batting Jon Nicholas, Claremont .750 average
Home Runs John Grainger, Claremont 2 HR
Runs Batted In Keith Lyman, Putney 11 RBI
Stolen Bases Josh Duford, Claremont 10 SB
Pitching Wins Richard Bissell, Putney; Danny Lichtenfeld, Putney; Jon Nicholas, Claremont all tied with 4
ERA Steve Corey of the Walpole Maples and Ryan Kohler of Walpole Wild Blue tied at 0.00
Strikeouts Jon Nicholas, Claremont 37 K
STANDINGS
W L GB
Putney 9 0 –
Walpole WB 7 1 1½
Claremont 6 3 3
Newport 4 4 4½
Sunapee 4 5 5
Walpole M 3 6 6
Brattleboro 1 8 8
Go Rats!
Brattleboro… go, fight, win!
(I think this proves without a doubt that our team is not taking steroids.)