Timing

It’s been said that timing is everything. The South Hagerstown softball team had timing issues all afternoon Thursday — from timing the opponent’s pitcher to untimely miscues and aggressiveness on the bases. And in the end, it was timely hitting on the part of Kennedy, which got a pair of bases-loaded singles in the top of the seventh inning to rally for a 12-11 win over the Rebels in the first round of the Maryland Class 3A West playoffs at South. “We didn’t have much emotion,” said South coach Angie Jeffries.

PONY's perfect timing Hagerstown moving on behind three big stars By BOB PARASILITI / Staff Writer WASHINGTON, Pa. - The Hagerstown Pony League All-Stars didn't do a lot of things Sunday. Tim Kellinger didn't know if he would hit the ball. Nick Adenhart couldn't eat. T.J. Bowser didn't start. But when the game was on the line, the trio did everything right. Kellinger homered and drove in three runs, Adenhart pitched a complete game with 14 strikeouts and Bowser added some needed momentum with a pinch-hit double to lead Hagerstown to a come-from-behind 5-3 victory over host Washington (Pa.)

Retired teacher sees a need for children's books that promote the values her ancestors lived by By KATE COLEMAN Staff Writer Timing is everything. Gen. George B. McClellan didn't immediately pursue the retreating Confederate forces after the battle of Antietam. His delay cost him his command. Author Myrtle Long Haldeman's timing is good. Her children's book, "Cassie: The Girl With the Hero's Heart," just has been released. It tells the story of an 11-year-old girl and her family in the months surrounding the battle of Antietam.

bobp@herald-mail.com WILLIAMSPORT - Hits are like comedy. Each is more effective when they are well timed. The Williamsport baseball team had the proper delivery and got the last laugh in a 14-1 victory over Clear Spring Monday in the Maryland Class 1A West quarterfinal. David Warrenfeltz did the set up with a three-run home run in the first and starting pitcher Andy Taylor delivered the punchline with a second-inning grand slam to overwhelm the Blazers. And what made it worse for Clear Spring, both blasts came with two outs.

The timing of Saddam Hussein's execution, rather than the act itself, concerned Hagerstown physician Shahab Siddiqui, an active member of the Islamic Society of Western Maryland. The execution occurred on the eve of the Islamic holiday Eid al-Adha, the Muslim feast of sacrifice, and at a time when millions of Muslims were making a pilgrimage, or hajj, to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. "The timing of this is very odd and wrong," Siddiqui said, comparing it to Westerners conducting an execution on Christmas.

Most traffic signals in Chambersburg back on regular timing By STACEY DANZUSO / Staff Writer, Chambersburg The Chambersburg Borough Council Wednesday heard a report on the state of traffic signals in the borough. Assistant Electric Superintendent Scott Miller said a borough-wide power outage in January threw off many of the downtown signals, but all but two are now back on their regular timing. He said the signals at Queen and Main streets and Lincoln Way and Second Street were still not functioning at their regular intervals.

martinsburg@herald-mail.com MARTINSBURG, W.VA. - Sometimes a police officer simply finds himself at the right place, at the right time. That was the case Tuesday night for Jerry Bradshaw, a deputy with the Berkeley County Sheriff's Department. Bradshaw was at the intersection of Foxcroft Avenue and Apple Harvest Drive in Martinsburg at about 10:55 p.m. Tuesday when he noticed a man running from the side door of a McDonald's restaurant, according to records filed in Berkeley County Magistrate Court.

Motorists who have been frustrated by the number of red lights that impede their progress on Hagerstown streets may soon find the going a bit easier. The Maryland State Highway Administration plans to turn on a new traffic signal synchronization system today, about two weeks earlier than expected. By early next week, all of the lights on main thoroughfares and side streets downtown should be timed properly and working together, George Small, an assistant district engineer for traffic with the State Highway Administration, said.

SHARPSBURG -- Someone once said timing is everything. No need to remind Joan Bontempo of that. As part of the upcoming Sharpsburg Heritage Days observance Sept. 13-14, local artist Bontempo was commissioned in March to do a poster as a fundraiser for the event. The timing part came in with her inclusion of the Ellis L. Keyfauver barn as part of the montage. "The barn was destroyed in a wind storm one week after the design was completed," Bontempo said. Also featured in the poster are the images of Maryann and Joseph Chapline, the founders of the town.

Tina Schaubroeck of Greencastle walked around the track at Kaley Field with a renewed pep in her step during the American Cancer Society's 19th Annual Greencastle Relay for Life on Saturday. “I just found out this past March that I am free of breast cancer,” said the 41-year-old teacher at Mowrey Elementary School in Waynesboro, Pa. After being diagnosed in December 2011 and losing most of 2012 to cancer treatments, Schaubroeck is determined to make every second of her life count.

A major reason why many people never achieve more than minor fitness success is they are trying to accomplish too many things at one time. Ask what their purpose is and most guys will say to get big, strong and ripped. Most women will say to get leaner, stronger and more toned. Too often we'll bounce from program to program, never really giving any of them a decent effort. The problem here is, however, if you are working with too many goals, you might not achieve any of them.  How do you make sure you are really training for results?

It is hard to imagine that one week from today my son will graduate from high school. Where did the time go? Wasn't it just a few years ago that we brought him home from the hospital? The night he was born still seems very clear in my mind. My husband and I spent a half an hour trying to change our little baby's T-shirt. His arms were so tiny and long. I was afraid we would dislocate something just trying to dress him. We wanted to do everything right. We started reading to him every night before bed. Classical sounds would float through our home as dinner was being prepared.

A Hagerstown man was in Washington County Detention Center on $650,000 bond Wednesday, charged with assaulting an ex-girlfriend five times, including twice on the same day. Timothy J. Gardner, 41, no fixed address, is charged with assaulting the woman three times in December and twice on March 29, court records said. In the Dec. 18 incident, the woman filed a private criminal complaint stating Gardner grabbed her and threw her to the ground, court records said. In the same complaint, the woman stated that Gardner put a choke hold on her during a Dec. 27 altercation and threatened her with a wooden rod on Dec. 28, the document said.

The Washington County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday approved the county's proposed 2013-14 fiscal year operating budget of $245.9 million. The budget calls for tax rates to remain the same as last fiscal year, with a real estate tax of 94.8 cents per $100 of assessed property value and an income tax rate of 2.8 percent. In a separate motion, the five commissioners unanimously approved using a little more than $1.1 million of excess General Fund revenues to pay a one-time stipend for all full-time and permanent part-time employees.

A smoothie is a blended and sometimes sweetened beverage made from fresh fruit and perhaps chocolate or peanut butter. They can also contain milk, yogurt or ice cream. In addition to fruit, many smoothies include crushed ice, frozen fruit and honey. They have a milkshake-like consistency that is thicker than slush drinks. These thick, cold blender beverages are tasty, refreshing and, if made with the right ingredients, nutritious. Smoothies are easy to concoct with ingredients you have in your pantry and can be a great choice for a snack or mini-meal.

Automobiles manufactured in Hagerstown between the turn of the century and the Great Depression have made their way to the new Rural Heritage Transportation Museum at the Washington County Agricultural Education Center. The museum, which features buggies, carriages and automobiles that were used in Washington County mostly from the late 19th century up to World War II, has two Pope Tribunes, produced in 1903 and 1904; two Dagmar automobiles, manufactured in 1922 and 1925; and an Astor taxicab.

As Nicole Glaze of Waynesboro, Pa., fiddled with her cap and gown before Saturday's spring commencement at Penn State Mont Alto, she remembered the obstacles she faced to achieve her dream. “I've worked really hard to get here. I got pregnant when I was 16,” said Glaze, now 20. So many teens give up on their dreams when that happens, she said. But she vowed to herself not to let anything stop her from an education. “To be able to graduate from college is a big thing for me,” she said.

As the longtime president of a Hagerstown furniture manufacturing company, David C. Beachley has seen a lot of curves and sharp edges in the numbers that define his business. The worst of the extremes in the number of people he employs has come fairly recently. “We went from 65 to 14 (workers) pretty quick during the recession,” Beachley said late last month. “It was pretty rough there for a while.” But now, because of big changes in the kinds of furniture his employees were willing to learn to make, Beachley Furniture Co. Inc. has not only survived the recession, but is hiring again.

A Hagerstown man was sentenced Thursday in Berkeley County Circuit Court to at least one year in prison after he pleaded guilty to fleeing the scene of a fatal motorcycle crash in April 2011. Steven Edward Thompson, 47, was fined $500 by 23rd Judicial Circuit Judge John C. Yoder and ordered to report to Eastern Regional Jail by 5 p.m. Friday to begin serving the sentence, which requires him to spend not less than one year nor more than five years in prison. Yoder denied the defendant's plea for home confinement Thursday after Thompson pleaded guilty to one felony count of leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death and one misdemeanor count of driving under the influence resulting in the April 12, 2011, death of Lorena Beth “Lori” Roberts of Bunker Hill, W.Va.