Hagerstown

Dario Vitalgliano hit a three-run double in the third inning to put Manchester ahead to stay, as the host team defeated Hagerstown B 6-1 on the opening day of the PONY League Baseball East Zone Tournament on Friday. Travis Dion added a two-run single and scored on a wild pitch to give Manchester all the scoring it needed. J.J. Cooper scored on a wild pitch in the fifth inning to give Hagerstown its only run. Garrett Spinks, Blake Harne, and Zach Barr had Hagerstown's three hits.

After an unusual rise in gas prices during the fall that led to record-highs in parts of the country, gas prices fell this week nationally and locally, according to statistics on the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report website at fuelgaugereport.aaa.com. Gas prices Tuesday averaged $3.77 a gallon nationally for regular grade gas, down from $3.81 the previous week. In Maryland, prices dropped from $3.70 to $3.69 per gallon, and dropped four cents around Hagerstown from $3.84 to $3.80.

Efforts to get state money for the revitalization of downtown Hagerstown are continuing with two prominent city residents meeting with top officials from the governor's and lieutenant governor's office Wednesday to appraise them of developments. D. Bruce Poole, a local attorney and a former member of the House of Delegates who has been involved with downtown revitalization plans, said he and Bill Proctor, a local attorney, met with Maia Estes, the chief of staff at the lieutenant governor's office, and Matthew Verghese, the deputy chief of staff for the lieutenant governor.

The hits just kept on coming for the Hagerstown PONY-13 All-Stars in the fourth inning against Tijuana, Mexico, on Sunday at the PONY-13 World Series. When the inning started, Hagerstown - which lost to Tijuana 9-3 in its first game Friday - trailed Tijuana 3-1 in the elimination game. By the time it was over, Hagerstown had turned 11 hits into 13 runs and a 14-3 lead on the way to a 15-4 victory in five innings. “It was amazing,” Hagerstown manager Dave Barr said. “Ironically, the same thing happened to us in the first game against Mexico - they scored three runs in the first inning - and they did the same thing today with two runs.

Celebrating its 40th anniversary, the Maryland Cattlemen's Association welcomed nearly 200 people to its 25th Annual Maryland Cattle Industry Convention in Hagerstown earlier this month. A highlight of the banquet was the announcement of the Top Hand Award. Association President Mike Harrison of Woodbine, Md., presented the award to Bill Poffenberger of M&M Farm in Hagerstown. The award recognizes an individual who has contributed significantly to the well-being of Maryland's cattle industry.

The eastern side of Alley 2-60 (Library Alley) connecting Summit Avenue to South Prospect Street between West Antietam Street and West Washington Street is closed to all traffic Thursday. Work crews from NTELOS, Inc. are installing underground communication cables in the alley, according to a traffic advisory from the City of Hagerstown's website, www.hagerstownmd.org . The work involves trenching and excavation in the eastern end of the alley at Summit Avenue, according to the advisory.

The following three alleys in Hagerstown are closed this week, including two through Friday, according to traffic advisories posted on the city's website, www.hagerstownmd.org : • Hays Alley, which intersects with Wareham Alley and connects West Washington Street to West Franklin Street just west of Potomac Street (Md. 65), is closed between Wareham Alley and Franklin Street so work crews form Miller Pipeline Inc. can rehabilitate a sanitary sewer main at the rear of the North Potomac Street parking deck.

Residents of a two-story home south of Hagerstown off Sharpsburg Pike escaped injury early Saturday in a blaze that caused significant damage to the structure, according to Funkstown Volunteer Fire Co. Chief Dave Fraley. A volunteer firefighter was treated at the scene of the fire in the 9700 block of Clover Heights Road off Kent Avenue for minor burns on the back of the neck, Fraley said. The fire, which was reported at 4:03 a.m., destroyed a garage attached to the home and spread into the side of the home, where Fraley said four people live.

We had long since given up eating at Chick-fil-A, but for a reason that had nothing to do with the current unpleasantness. Maybe a year ago, Chick-fil-A unleashed its corporate goons against a Vermont artist who, at the suggestion of a small-town farmer, had produced T-shirts proclaiming “Eat More Kale.” Chick-fil-A said this was an infringement on its “Eat mor chikin” ad campaign. It issued a nasty cease-and-desist letter to the entrepreneur, saying his T-shirts were “likely to cause confusion of the public and dilute the distinctiveness of Chick-fil-A's intellectual property.” Forget that this fellow's “Eat More Kale” shirts had been around for years, and I myself had an “Eat More Possum” bumper sticker on my Ford Econoline van a good 15 years before the phrase caught on in fast-food land.

Mayors, council members and other municipal leaders from across Maryland will gather in Hagerstown Oct. 4 to 6 for the annual fall conference of the Maryland Municipal League, or MML. Highlights of the 2012 MML fall conference will include the presentation of the first Sustainable Maryland Certified luncheon/awards, which will honor the first municipalities to have earned the certification; two days of educational workshops and forums; meetings of...