PECKVILLE – Three Lackawanna Football Conference all-star players from Susquehanna County are preparing for Wednesday night’s 82nd annual Dream Game at John Henzes/Veterans Memorial Stadium.
Susquehanna linebacker Zach Conrad and lineman Evan Aldrich and Montrose running back/linebacker Derek Nunez are on the City team, which will take on the County in the all-star game for graduating LFC players.
Playing in the Dream Game became a goal for Conrad, a second-team Pennsylvania Football News all-state linebacker, when he saw the game for the first time three years ago.
“I looked up to and idolized those guys and really wanted to play in it,” Conrad said.
Conrad was a first-team LFC Division 4 all-star linebacker and second-team center each of the past two seasons. He led the Sabers in tackles last season.
Aldrich was a first-team division all-star defensive lineman after leading Susquehanna in sacks, tackles for losses and pass rushes last season.
Nunez led Montrose to a .500 season by rushing for more than 1,200 yards while also excelling on defense. He was the Meteors’ only first-team LFC Division 3 all-star, earning recognition at both running back and linebacker.
Conrad and Aldrich graduated from Blue Ridge and Nunez from Elk Lake. They all took advantage of the cooperative sponsorships that Blue Ridge and Susquehanna have and Elk Lake and Montrose had before discontinuing it in the offseason.
Rule changes this year reduced the Dream Game preparation from 12 to 6 practices. The first City practice was cut short by rain.
“We’ve reduced the practices to be more in line with all-star games on the state level – the Big 33 and the East-West Game,” Dream Game player/coach liaison Jerry Preschutti said.
MINOR-LEAGUE BASEBALL
MOOSIC – The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders arrived at the all-star break with the best record in Triple-A baseball at 56-35, including wins in their last eight road games.
The RailRiders offense leads the league in batting average (.265) and runs per game (4.63).
The pitching staff has the only team earned run average below 3.00 in Triple-A at 2.95 and shares the minor-league baseball lead with 14 shutouts.
Several RailRiders were ranked among the International League leaders at the July 11-13 break.
Ben Gamel was fifth in batting average (.306) and third in runs scored (51) after reaching the all-star break with hits in 12 straight games. Donovan Solano, who shares the league lead with six sacrifice flies, is tied for eighth with a .302 batting average.
Outfielder Aaron Judge went on the disabled list July 9 with a knee injury. He leads the league with 54 RBI, is second with 52 runs scored, tied for second with 16 homers and tied for fourth with 42 walks.
“He had a great month,” RailRiders manager Al Pedrique said of Judge. “He was Player of the Month for June and Player of the Week one of the weeks.
“I feel bad for him because he’d been working so hard.”
Catcher Gary Sanchez leads the league, throwing out 37.5 percent of opposing base stealers and is fifth with a .489 slugging percentage.
Jake Cave is tied for second with six triples.
Chad Green led the league with a 1.54 ERA.
Four RailRiders were selected for the Triple-A All-Star Classic. Two started and batted in the first three spots in the order for the International League in a 4-2 win over the Pacific Coast League.
Gamel led off and played left field. Sanchez caught and batted third. Both were 0-for-2 before leaving the game.
Judge, who did not make the trip because of his knee injury, and Green were picked but did not play.
Binghamton Mets third baseman Matt Oberste was Most Valuable Player of Wednesday’s Eastern League All-Star Game in Akron, Ohio, leading the Eastern Division to a 10-2 win over the Western Division.
Oberste batted last and played the whole game, moving to first base before it was over. He finished 4-for-5 with a double and drove in four runs.
Tyler Pill and Logan Taylor from Binghamton each pitched an inning for the Eastern Division.
Taylor struck out two in a 1-2-3 inning. Pill allowed a run on one hit while striking out one.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and Binghamton each had one player in the Futures Game in San Diego July 10.
The game for top prospects across all levels of the minors serves as a lead-in to the Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
Gary Sanchez from the RailRiders started at catcher and went 0-for-2 for the World, which won, 11-3.
Binghamton Mets first baseman Dominic Smith went 0-for-4 but drove in a run for Team USA.
TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com or followed on Twitter at @tomjrobinson.
Keselowski Gets Fourth Win
Brad Keselowski gets fourth win (Furnished by NASCAR)
SPARTA, Ky.--Brad Keselowski won Saturday night’s Sprint Cup Series race at Kentucky Speedway for his fourth win of the season. But it was a close one for the Penske Racing driver, as he ran out of fuel just after crossing the start-finish line.
Being able to conserve fuel was the key to his win. Keselowski made only four pit stops during the 267-lap race. Every other car that was running at the end of the race made at least five. He spent 33 seconds less in the pits than runner-up driver Carl Edwards did.
“Well, rolling right into them last few laps, gosh, that was something,” said Keselowski. “We weren’t the best car tonight. That’s for sure. We seemed to kind of hover right in that fifth-to-eighth-place range, and we came down pit road fifth with 72 to go, and left pit road fifth. I thought, well, you know, who knows how these things are going to go. Then the 78 (Martin Truex Jr.) got the penalty, moved us into the outside line on the restart, which I think we saw all night was the preferred line. I was able to clear the two inside cars, and get into Turn 3 behind Kevin (Harvick) and I was about half a car width back, which, I had a pretty good ideal that if I could stay within half a car length of him that I could create an aero wake behind his car and loosen him up a little bit without touching him, and sure enough, we went down in the corner and it looked like he got really loose and I was able to make the move and get by him.”
Carl Edwards did not lead any laps but had worked his way up to second near the end of the race.
“I thought he was out of fuel, and he wasn’t. He played it perfectly,” said Edwards. “He basically shut the car off and went right off of (Turn) four and matched it perfectly to where I couldn’t get by him down the front straightaway. We ran like heck through one and two, and I thought maybe he’ll run out down the back straight. I dove it down there trying to catch him in three but I couldn’t even get to him. I couldn’t. He was fast.”
Ryan Newman, the third place driver had his best finish of the season.
“We did have a good car,” said Newman. “We just never seemed to be able to get good track position and played the fuel game there at the end, did what I thought I had to do, and with no fuel gauge or any kind of telemetry was able to make it to the end. Was hoping that we were going to be the first guy that could pull that one off, not the third guy, but just proud to get our first top-5 of the season.”
Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, Jamie McMurray, Matt Kenseth, Kevin Harvick, and Martin Truex were the remaining top-10 finishers.
Top-10 leaders after 18 of 36: 1. Harvick-599, 2. Keselowski-595, 3. Kurt Busch-583, 4. Edwards-566, 5. Logano-533, 6. Kyle Busch-521, 7. Truex-514, 8. Elliott-492, 9. Johnson-484, 10. Kenseth-477.
“ROWDY” KYLE TAKES XFINITY RACE
Kyle Busch, a Sprint Cup regular put on a driving show for all the regular Xfinity Series drivers, as he led 185 laps of the 201 lap race, on the way to victory lane.
Austin Dillon was second, followed by series leader Daniel Suarez, Erik Jones, Darrell Wallace Jr., Elliott Sadler, Ty Dillon, Ryan Blaney, Brennan Poole, and Brad Keselowski.
Top-10 leaders after 16 of 33: 1. Suarez-499, 2. Sadler-493, 3. T. Dillon-483, 4. Allgaier-462, 5. Gaughan-449, 6. E. Jones-442, 7. B. Jones-429, 8. Poole-422, 9. Wallace Jr.-394, 10. Reed-366.
Top-10 Camping World Truck Series leaders after 10 of 23: 1. Byron-263, 2. Crafton-250, 3. Hemric-246, 4. Peters-246, 5. Sauter-233, 6. Nemechek-223, 7. Reddick-215, 8. Bell-214, 9. Kennedy-203, 10. Rhodes-201.
WALLACE JR. FINED $15,000
Darrell Wallace, Jr. has been fined $15,000 for his behavioral infraction for comments on Twitter following the Daytona Xfinity race, about NASCAR officiating.
“Got the muppets up there officiating tonight! Never know how to react under pressure... Whatta joke,” Wallace wrote on his Twitter message board.
Maybe Wallace will learn that you don’t bad mouth NASCAR in public.
FAN EXCESS ON PIT ROAD
Last week at Daytona, the Sprint Cup Drivers Council met to discuss the ever growing number of fans on pit road. In NASCAR’s earlier years, there were less fans and the situation was manageable. But in the last few years with speedways selling more and more pit passes to fans, sometimes the teams are overwhelmed by their numbers.
It’s pretty much common knowledge that NASCAR fans have more access to their favorite sport and its athletes more than other fans of other sports, but is there too much access? Where should the line be drawn, and has that line already been crossed? Maybe it has. Fan access is well and good, but it can go too far. Sometimes there really is such a thing as too much of a good thing and, maybe, NASCAR fans are getting too much of a good thing.
Amanda Vincent of Auto Racing Today talked with Denny Hamlin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. about their meeting.
“I thought that the security on pit road last week (at Sonoma) was pretty bad during pre-race,” Earnhardt said. “So we’ll talk about that a little bit. Some of the drivers are concerned with how messy that’s getting considering what we have going on. We’re trying to get in the cars and it was crazy down there.”
Hamlin agreed.
“I agree last week that it was really hard to even walk to your car, and it’s a very small pit road,” Hamlin said. “Things could definitely get done. I feel like each team should have a 10-foot-square space around their car that is just designated for the driver and team.
“Honestly, they’re monitoring the crew guys from touching the car before the race, but the casual fan can do just about anything they want to the side of the car. It’s really crazy how much. For example, I’ve seen guys just fall over the hood of the car and put a dent in it.
“That’s more than any adjustment any crew guys could make. It’s something that could be addressed and will be addressed.”
Is the answer cutting back on the number of fans allowed on pit road and in the area around the driver intro. stage just before the race? Maybe the answer isn’t decreasing the number of fans with access. Instead, maybe the answer is limited the areas to which they have access.
Unfortunately, I think the need for these questions and answers in response to those questions is a matter of a few ruining things for the many. A lot of the fans with this great access are respectable of drivers and crews trying to do their jobs. That’s right; these guys are at the track to do their jobs, and quite frankly, some disrespectful and self-absorbed fans with access are hindering these guys and gals from doing their jobs. And it’s that few that may end up ruining things for everyone else.
I’m not sure what the answer is, but Earnhardt and Hamlin are right. Something needs to be done. If you’re in the infield, specifically on pit road and around the stage for driver intros., keep this in mind — drivers and crew members are trying to do their jobs. How would you like it if a group of folks showed up at your job on Monday morning and spent a few hours in your face? I’m guessing you wouldn’t like it, either.
Weekend Racing: The Cup and Xfinity teams are at the 1.058-mile New Hampshire Speedway. The trucks have and off week.
Sat., July 16, Xfinity Series race 17 of 33; Starting time: 4 pm ET; TV: NBCSN.
Sun., July 17, Sprint Cup series race 19 of 36; Starting time: 1:30 pm ET; TV: NBCSN.
Racing Trivia Question: When was the first NASCAR race held at New Hampshire?
Last Week’s Question? Who has the most wins at Daytona International Speedway? Answer. Richard Petty.
You may contact the Racing Reporter by e-mail at: hodges@race500.com
