Lord Botetourt High School will have seven graduated seniors participating in “The Last Inning” baseball game Saturday at Salem Memorial Ballpark. The game is an exhibition, free to the public, for area high school ballplayers to have one last game on the diamond.
The players are split into two teams with one sporting gray shirts and the other in red. Botetourt players are on the Gray team with teammates from William Byrd, Hidden Valley, Staunton River, Eastern Montgomery, Roanoke Catholic, Cave Spring, Alleghany and Smith Mountain Lake Christian. The Red team will be comprised of players from Glenvar, Liberty, Christiansburg, Northside, Franklin County and North Cross.
Barry Shelton of Franklin County will be the head coach of the Red team, assisted by Dale Nelson of Christiansburg, Jeremy Cromer of Glenvar and Kelly Dampeer and Trent Cundiff of Northside. Randy Boone of Byrd is the Gray coach and he’ll be assisted by Brian and Jake Divers of Staunton River, Jonathan Hagee of Eastern Montgomery and Kevin Slough of Hidden Valley.
Lord Botetourt will have seven players on the Gray team– Ethan Deschambault, J.J. Tyree, Nolan Medley, Brayden Wells, Cade Lang, Caleb O’Quinn and Layne Sullivan. Medley, Deschambault and O’Quinn will all get a turn to pitch.
The game is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. and will be 10 innings so everyone can get ample playing time. After five innings there will be a break to announce the winner of the Salem-Roanoke Baseball Hall of Fame’s Ray Bellamy Award for the high school Player of the Year in the Hall of Fame area. There are seven finalists and LB’s Medley is among them. Others include Lawson Pasley of Franklin County, Jesse Brown of Staunton River, Trace Monroe of Salem, Brice Abbott of Blacksburg, Caleb Furmage of Salem and Ean Amerson of Franklin County. Recipients of scholarships named for Wayne LaPierre, Sr. and Kelvin Bowles will also be announced.
