Seven graduated seniors from Lord Botetourt High School participated in the fifth annual “The Last Inning” baseball game at Salem Memorial Ballpark Saturday. The game is sponsored by the Salem-Roanoke Baseball Hall of Fame and the Salem Red Sox, and was initiated in 2020 when the COVID pandemic wiped out the high school regular season, giving the seniors from that year a chance to play one last high school game.
“The Last Inning” was so successful it was decided to play it every year, and last Saturday players were divided into two teams for a pair of five-inning games. Also on Saturday the Salem-Roanoke Baseball Hall of Fame announced the winner of its annual Ray Bellamy Award, for the top high school player in the area serving the Hall of Fame, as well as two special scholarships.
Lord Botetourt players were on the Gray team, coached by Randy Boone of William Byrd. The Red team, coached by Franklin County’s Barry Shelton, swept the doubleheader by scores of 8-0 and 5-1. Rain was in the forecast Saturday but never materialized and the event went on as planned.
“We dodged a huge storm about 3 o’clock that went about a mile south of us,” said Hall of Fame Vice President Gary Walthall. “Most people thought it was going to be rained out. Around the bottom of the fourth of the first five innings, another storm was headed right to us and took a right turn as well and missed us.”
Photos by Jenn King
Lord Botetourt sent three pitchers to the mound, as Ethan Deschambault, Caleb O’Quinn and Cade Lang each pitched an inning. Nolan Medley, LB’s best pitcher during the season, did not take the mound as he was resting his shoulder for the start of his college career at Lenoir-Rhyne University in North Carolina. Nolan batted three times and flied to center twice along with being hit by a pitch.
Brayden Wells of LB played first base for the Gray team and singled, and J.J. Tyree also had a single. Deschambault, Lang, O’Quinn and Layne Sullivan all batted but didn’t get a hit.
“All 18 players for the Gray team came and all but one from the Red team came,” said Walthall. “It was the best attendance we’ve had in the five years of the game. The kids had a great time.”
Between games the Bellamy Award was presented and Lawson Pasley of Franklin County was the winner. Other finalists included Medley of LB, Trace Monroe and Caleb Furmage of Salem, Brice Abbot of Blacksburg, Jesse Brown of Staunton River and Ean Amerson of Franklin County.
The Hall of Fame also awarded two annual scholarships. The Posey Oyler scholarship recipient is J.J. Tyree of LB and Brown of Staunton River was the recipient of the Kelvin Bowles Scholarship.
