No respite for stumbling Cannons
The Charles Town Cannons of the collegiate Valley Baseball League sank to the bottom of the Northern Division standings when they lost four of five games played last week. Charles Town had an 8-15 overall record in games through Sunday, July 5, and faced an uphill climb in order to qualify for the eight-team league playoffs.
Strasburg led the Northern Division with its 14-9 record, and was six games in front of the Cannons. Front Royal finished the week with a 13-9 record and Aldie found itself in third place with a 12-11 mark.
The Winchester Royals clung to fourth place, but were only 12-13 and were three games ahead of the Cannons. Woodstock was 8-14 and in fifth place just a half-game in front of the Cannons.
The Southern Division of the league was being paced by Harrisonburg at 18-6. In second place was Staunton with its 16-8 mark. The remainder of the Southern Division had fast-advancing Charlottesville at 11-13, Waynesboro at 10-13, New Market with its 11-15 mark and sixth-place Covington at only 9-15.
The Cannons have recently traded Ryan Phillips and his .355 batting average to Harrisonburg while signing Riley McCown. Charles Town also released Riley Echols, Ross Moore and Joseph Mundy.
The regular season race ends on July 25 if all necessary games involving the pennant races have been played. After that, the top four teams in each division begin the playoffs, which will give the survivor the overall Valley Baseball League championship.