Harrisonburg Turks

Member of the Valley Baseball League and NACSB.

  • 1955 VBL Champions
  • 1958 VBL Champions
  • 1959 VBL Champions
  • 1962 VBL Champions
  • 1964 VBL Champions
  • 1969 VBL Champions
  • 1970 VBL Champions
  • 1971 VBL Champions
  • 1977 VBL Champions
  • 1991 VBL Champions
  • 2000 VBL Champions
  • 2012 VBL Champions
  • 2023 VBL Champions

Turks Now 8-2

Posted: June 13, 2012

By MATTHEW STOSS

Daily News Record

The Turks’ A.J. Murray hits a home run in the first inning against Staunton on Tuesday. (Photos by Michael Reilly / DN-R)

HARRISONBURG — After the second inning, it looked like the remaining seven would be a formality, and the Harrisonburg Turks would go home with a tidy blowout win over the Staunton Braves.
Well, not quite.
Instead, the Turks had to fend off a late rally — which, to be fair, they helped create — and survive with a 10-7 win over South Division rival Staunton in a Valley Baseball League game Tuesday at Veterans Memorial Park.
“I don’t know. We made some errors, booted some balls, got a little lackadaisical, lot of walks,” said Charles Sheffield, the Turks’ right fielder from Georgia Tech. “But, you know what? That’s part of it. We battled.”
Harrisonburg — which improved to 8-2, the best record in the VBL — survived thanks to the early offensive cushion and a lockdown performance from Shawn O’Neill.
The left-hander from LaSalle came in with no outs in the eighth inning and got a fielder’s choice and a double play to end a five-run inning for the Braves (4-5), who took advantage of four walks and an error.
O’Neill retired the side in order in the ninth to earn his third save of the season, ending the game in 2 hours, 44 minutes. It was the only VBL game played Tuesday. Every other contest was rained out.
“Really, the story tonight is Shawn O’Neill,” Turks manager Bob Wease said. “And Shawn came in the eighth inning and just shut them down.”
Dillon Ortman (2-0), a right-hander from Auburn, got the win after tossing six innings and giving up two runs, both earned. He yielded nine hits and struck out two with no walks, thanks to a good slider and a good changeup. The 10-run lead after two innings didn’t hurt, either.
“I felt OK today,” said Ortman, who turns 20 years old today. “Stuff wasn’t really working that great, but I had a good feel for my slider, which I utilized a lot, and the fastball was just kind of there, so I felt OK.”
Harrisonburg scored four runs in the first inning on an RBI double from Brian Yeung (Wingate) and a three-run home run by A.J. Murray. The designated hitter from Georgia Tech connected on a high fastball and sent it just over the left-center field wall to make it 4-0. It was his first homer of the season.
“Everyone swung the bat well,” Murray said. “We got timely hits … But, overall, people walked; we moved them over. We were just very productive hitting-wise and we got good starting pitching to back it up.”
The Turks added six runs in the second inning and sent 10 batters to the plate to blow it open early. First, Yeung had an RBI single and then Sheffield tripled to center field to score two runs. Harrisonburg also scored on a double by Murray and a sacrifice fly to center field by Eric Mason (St. Joseph’s).
The Braves had two runs in the fifth and five in the eighth. Still, it wasn’t enough to come back from the Turks’ first two innings.
“We’ve been playing a different kind of ballgame — been playing a lot of small ball first three or four games,” Wease said. “But tonight, we came out and played some long ball.”
Staunton                000 020 050 –   7 12 1 Harrisonburg        460 000 00x – 10 13 3
Stuckey, Soucy (2), Howard (3), Schreiber (4), Johnson 6), Packrall (8) and Wright, Angelis; Ortman, McLeod (7), Priddle (8), O’Neill (8) and Mason. W—Ortman (2-0). L—Stuckey (0-1). Sv—O’Neill (3). HR—Harrisonburg: Murray (1).