Looking Back on the August 26^th Alexandria vs. Hershey Softball Game           

What a day!!  Fun, fellowship, songs, laughter and All-American-Patriotism!!

A huge local home team from Alexandria (26 players) was on hand for the inaugural
Alexandria – Hershey BHS Softball Classic.  The big game was on neutral ground at Centennial Park in Ellicott City, MD, Saturday August 26^th.

After leading with their 8 runs til about the fifth inning, the Harmonizers rotated every player onto the field.  The final score was 8 for Alexandria and 16 for Hershey.

Organizer for this event was “Slugger” Steve White.  Jack Cameron helped get the field and park in MD since it is near his home. Steve was sort of emcee for the event and he and Sean Devine from Hershey set the stage for the game.

Surprise umpire for the game was Chip Gallent, COO of the BHS in Nashville.  Chip reviewed the rules agreed upon in advance by the team captains – Don Dillingham from Alexandria and Brandon Brooks from Hershey. Chip was home plate ump and stationed for the softball game behind the pitcher’s mound.  First and third base umpires were BHS contest administrators Chris Buechler and John Santora. Terry Reynolds was score keeper.

The game started about 10 am after the choruses sang the National Anthem together. It was a seven-inning game. The first pitch of the game was delivered by Joe Cerutti who had declared a few months ago that he’d be the quarterback for our team – so accordingly he tossed a football onto the field?!!

Both teams had baseball jerseys for the game with their names on the back, and our guys’ shirts had the new AH logo on the front.

Mike Kelly had brought enough sound equipment for a rock concert and he and game announcer Cerutti had picked out song clips to blast for all to hear each time a new batter came to home plate. The songs were fun and brought lots of laughs all around.  There were many family members on hand for the fun too.

Before the picnic feed, the two teams each lined up at home plate for a team photo and then a combined game photo. The intermingled singers then sang “God Bless America.”

And adjourned to the chow and drinks.  Chuck McKeever was one of the cooks and he had a 100 hotdogs and buns ready to serve – he only had 8 left to take home.  Carl Kauffmann was also cooking burgers and brats on a grill.  YeEd hears there were lots of desserts and plenty of goodies to go around that were brought by the nearly 100 barbershoppers on hand for the event.

Pick up quartets did some singing for sure before folks departed late afternoon.

There were some injuries to report tho!  Steve White a badly scraped knee sliding into first base was first.  Then our first pitcher, Shawn Tallant, who had kept the Hershey team scoring down to a minimum was injured trying to catch a fly and needed to have 911 called for an ankle injury. Ironically, Shawn’s wife was the nurse on hand for the game and had to call for help.

Then our second pitcher, Art Medici, also fell while on the mound and has a messed up shoulder issue!

Dennis Ritchey went to the mound from first base and finished the game without injury!

Tho he didn’t play, Terry Jordan was in the audience after his months of foot and back problems.

Just to make certain quarterback Joe got a chance at bat, both teams took the field and someone pitched to him.  He hit a good ball into the infield, but ran straight to third base from home!!! So much for his baseball quarterback skills!!!!

It was a fun day and a wonderful start of what is likely to become a tradition for the two chapters.

Until next time – editorjack!

(This message is prepared for your review if you were there, for your information if you had to miss, and as a historical record of the great things going on each week during the 70^th year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd