Written By Nathan Rishell
Staff Writer

Harrisonburg, VA – Civil War veteran turned accomplished lawyer and orator Robert Green Ingersoll once said, “The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart”, and his timeless words describe the heart of a Harrisonburg Turks team that has bounced back from multiple defeats to build a four-game winning streak.

Friday night, the Turks faced the Staunton Braves, a squad that beat Harrisonburg by a four-point margin less than a week earlier.

Tensions threatened to boil over early in the contest, with both teams frustrated by a scoreless standstill throughout the first five innings, culminating by a member of the Braves being ejected from the match. Perhaps, the contest, which featured six players who lineup for JMU during the school year—three to a team—pushed the boundaries between friendly competition and personal rivalry.

At the top of the sixth, the Braves injected some life into a game marked only by the excitement of multiple consecutive foul balls landing in the stands by sending a runner home. Members of the Harrisonburg faithful waited with baited breath for the Turk’s response to going down against a team that bested them only days ago, and were elated by an explosion into action that saw three runs by the home team.

From the seventh on, the Turks firmly grasped a 3-1 advantage, giving up limited hits and no runs. Starting pitcher Mason Standstill stood courageously at the mound, sending numerous Braves to the dugout after swinging strikeouts, before being replaced in the ninth by John Gregory to ensure no further fatigue.

The Turks had no defensive errors on the night, a tribute to an increase in concentration instilled throughout the roster by Head Coach Wease.

Harrisonburg returns home on Saturday night in an effort to extend the current winning streak to five games. If Friday’s game was any indication of the Harrisonburg’s resilience, the Charlottesville TomSox should not take the surging Turks lightly.