Home Plate

That's a much more enjoyable sound when bowling than when at home plate. Bowling, a great American pastime, could be traced back as far as 3200 BC after a British anthropologist found a collection of objects in an Egyptian grave that appeared to be a crude form of bowling, according to the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame's Web site. Today, 95 million people in more than 90 nations bowl, according to www.bowlingmuseum.com . Many people belong to leagues, while others bowl strictly for fun with tenpins (the big bowling balls and pins)

koelble@herald-mail.com GREENCASTLE, Pa. - Almost everyone in attendance at Saturday's rivalry baseball game between Greencastle and Waynesboro saw a pretty good contest. Though there were several calls by the umpires that made managers and players unhappy, the most crucial judgment of all came in the last of the seventh inning that resulted in a Greencastle win over Waynesboro, 4-3. Waynesboro junior lefty Josh Arendt opened Greencastle's half of the seventh by walking Nate Kopp.

A home run contest Saturday at Municipal Stadium will do more than entertain those in attendance. It also will serve as a fundraiser to benefit a U.S. Marine Corps unit in Afghanistan, of which a local man is a member. Hub City Softball and the City of Hagerstown's recreation department have joined forces to create the Hub City Home Run Derby. The event begins at 5:30 p.m. Admission is free, but a collection will be taken to benefit the members of 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, F Co. in Marjah, Afghanistan.

karenh@herald-mail.com HAGERSTOWN - Corie Anderson does not mind being the only girl on her American Little League baseball team. The boys have good reason to accept the first baseman and catcher. She's got skill. Corie showed some pop when she came to bat in Sunday's Pepsi Major League Baseball Pitch, Hit & Run event at Brandenburg Field on Mill Street. About 55 children ages 7 to 14 participated in the free event, a first step in determining who will compete at the National Finals in Detroit during the major league's All-Star Weekend, local organizer Patty Edelblute said.

Conococheague survives again Team scores in its final at-bat to eliminate Federal in 11-12s By MIKE SIRBAUGH / Staff Writer photo: RIC DUGAN / staff photographer WILLIAMSPORT - For the second night in a row, when John Combs stepped to the plate for Conococheague, the scoreboard rang Cono-'ka-ching.' continued Combs lined a one-out bases-loaded single over the second base bag in the bottom of the sixth inning to give Conococheague a 5-4 victory over Federal in the District I Little League Tournament.

dans@herald-mail.com Jon Sechler knows he can go home again. Today, he'll find out just what kind of welcome he'll receive. Sechler, a first-team All-Area selection at Jefferson High School in 1997, returns to Sager Field, but not as a Cougar. He'll stride to home plate and greet former coach John Lowery wearing navy blue and gold as the head coach of St. Maria Goretti Gaels. "I'd be lying to say I wasn't (ready for this date)," Sechler said. "I circled that date on the calendar because it means so much.

Stephen Strasburg was at his dominant best in the early going Saturday, retiring 13 of the first 14 Chicago Cubs he faced, seven via strikeout. And then it all fell apart for the Washington Nationals' right-hander after a teammate's error. The No. 1 overall draft pick in 2009 and NL All-Star in 2012 wound up dropping his fifth consecutive decision of 2013, slumping his shoulders and bowing his head while laboring through a 42-pitch fifth inning during an 8-2 loss to the Cubs. “I tried to tell him ... 'You have to keep your head up, every time.

FUNKSTOWN - Attitude, discipline, practice. Those are the words the Funkstown Legion Post 211 baseball players wear on the back of their warm-up T-shirts and the words they've demonstrated in their 9-1 start. Funkstown's latest victory was a 4-3 win over Frederick Post 11 on Friday night in a Western Maryland District American Legion baseball game - the first district game for both teams. "I think that it was a big, key win," Funkstown manager Darryl Powell said. "We did well right off the bat. I think that we played hard in some key situations and we made some key plays.

BOONSBORO - Cam Shifler threw a three-hitter with 14 strikeouts to lead Boonsboro to a 7-2 win over Fort Hill in a Maryland Class 1A West baseball quarterfinal Tuesday. "It was a good victory," Shifler said. "We hit the ball and that gave me a lot of support. Whenever you jump out to a lead early, it always helps out the pitcher. The pitching is only as good as your hitting, because you can't win a game without a lead. " Boonsboro (14-5) will play host to Southern Garrett in the region semifinal today at 4:30 p.m. The Rams beat Allegany 12-0 on Tuesday.

HAGERSTOWN -- Shelley Lightner stood behind a fenced area, encouraging a boy to throw his best. "Come on, get it in there," Lightner said, waving her arms in the air. Lightner came from Baltimore to see her sister's grandson compete in the Aquafina Major League Baseball Pitch, Hit & Run Competition at Brandenburg Memorial Park on Mill Street Sunday afternoon. Lightner and other family members were happy to report that Brycen Winters, an 8-year-old Emma K. Doub Elementary School student, was doing well in the beginning of the contest.

Stephen Strasburg was at his dominant best in the early going Saturday, retiring 13 of the first 14 Chicago Cubs he faced, seven via strikeout. And then it all fell apart for the Washington Nationals' right-hander after a teammate's error. The No. 1 overall draft pick in 2009 and NL All-Star in 2012 wound up dropping his fifth consecutive decision of 2013, slumping his shoulders and bowing his head while laboring through a 42-pitch fifth inning during an 8-2 loss to the Cubs. “I tried to tell him ... 'You have to keep your head up, every time.

In the 1950 comedy “Kill the Umpire,” Bill “Two Call” Johnson (played by William Bendix) is chased by a vengeance-seeking mob of fans after he made what they believed to be a bad call in a minor league baseball game. Calling balls, strikes and checked swings could be a thing of the past in amateur ball if the Eagle Eye Electronic Home Plate is all that inventor Jerry Spessard claims. He has enough faith in the product to begin construction of a plant in Hancock this June, with production expected to begin by fall.

The Hancock Town Council voted Wednesday to provide a $200,000 loan to the company planning to build electronic home plates there later this year. The council voted to loan the money to Spessard Manufacturing with a personal guarantee from owner Jerry Spessard. Spessard is the co-inventor of the Eagle Eye Electronic Home Plate, which can call balls and strikes, as well as record pitch speed and other data. He plans to build a 6,000-square-foot facility in the town-owned Stanley Complex property.

The City of Hagerstown on Thursday released a new artist's rendering of what the proposed downtown multiuse sports and events center (MUSEC) may look like if it were built. The street-level drawing is a follow-up to the “bird's eye view” design, which was debuted at the Oct. 9 public information meeting, that shows the overall footprint of the preliminary plan for the facility, according to city Engineer Rodney Tissue. The biggest change from previous depictions, the field's orientation at the site was flipped, moving the location of home plate closer to West Baltimore Street rather than near the Herald-Mail building as it was first drawn up. Tissue said this change was in response to comments from citizens who live near the site.

A new conceptual drawing of a proposed downtown Hagerstown multiuse sports and events center gives people a better understanding of how the stadium could look, though it is not the final drawing, the project manager said Monday. The conceptual drawing, by HKS Sports & Entertainment, shows a grassy berm along left field, where people could gather to watch the game; and the potential reuse of a Washington County administration building on Hood Street as one of the concessions areas, Project Manager Jill Estavillo said.

A home run contest Saturday at Municipal Stadium will do more than entertain those in attendance. It also will serve as a fundraiser to benefit a U.S. Marine Corps unit in Afghanistan, of which a local man is a member. Hub City Softball and the City of Hagerstown's recreation department have joined forces to create the Hub City Home Run Derby. The event begins at 5:30 p.m. Admission is free, but a collection will be taken to benefit the members of 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, F Co. in Marjah, Afghanistan.

As the ball left the bat, I knew it was going to be a home run. New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez swung at a 2-0 pitch from Toronto Blue Jays right-hander Shawn Marcum in the first inning of their Aug. 4 game and launched the ball toward Monument Park behind the center-field fence at Yankee Stadium. This was no ordinary home run. For A-Rod, it was the 600th home run of his career, making him only the seventh player in Major League history to reach the milestone.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Alex Rodriguez became the youngest player to hit 600 home runs and did it with style, driving a pitch into Yankee Stadium's Monument Park in center field exactly three years to the day after his 500th homer. A-Rod reached the milestone Wednesday after a 12-game drought with a first-inning homer off Toronto's Shaun Marcum. Rodriguez connected with a 2-0 pitch over the middle of the plate for his 17th home run of the season, giving the Yankees a 2-0 lead on a sweltering summer afternoon.

For the Federal Little League 9-10 All-Stars, walk-off wins have become the norm. "These are the cardiac kids," said Federal manager Charlie Wood. "They never say die. " Federal rallied for its second walk-off victory in as many days, defeating National Little League 10-9 in a Maryland District 1 9-10 Tournament losers' bracket game at National. Federal travels to Hancock at noon today for the losers' bracket final. National opened the scoring in the top of the first.

HAGERSTOWN -- Shelley Lightner stood behind a fenced area, encouraging a boy to throw his best. "Come on, get it in there," Lightner said, waving her arms in the air. Lightner came from Baltimore to see her sister's grandson compete in the Aquafina Major League Baseball Pitch, Hit & Run Competition at Brandenburg Memorial Park on Mill Street Sunday afternoon. Lightner and other family members were happy to report that Brycen Winters, an 8-year-old Emma K. Doub Elementary School student, was doing well in the beginning of the contest.