AND NOW FOR THE LATEST NEWS.....
FROM LARS NIELSEN

Breaking News & Top Stories - Dateline -- Highlands Ranch, Colorado ...

The heat starts to turn up in North Carolina in July.  The humidity swells and it seems that you face either sweltering heat and crushing humidity before a cool front rolls in and it seems like the ball settles down into a nice down matress unable to get out of the infield or the bed.

In the month, Greensboro seemed to falter against the likes of Shoreline (1-2) and Richmond (1-2), while proving to be adequate again this year in winning the rubber match against Tacoma (2-1), Virginia (2-1) and Hudson (2-1).   Pacing the way for the boys in Emerald and Charcoal this month was none other than Free Agent pick up of the year Sam Hilliard with his .432/.447/1.027 slash, pacing the team with 6 homeruns, 2 stolen bases and a respectable 4 Doubles in only 37 ABs.   Local Hero Cedric Mullins continues to know how to play at home and enjoy some home cooked meals hitting .417/.451/.771 with 5 stolen bases, 4 Home runs and 4 doubles.  Bringing the home team batting stats to a robust .278/.347/.509 with 28 HRs with 89 RBI in 15 games this month.

The boys on the bump in route to the 8-7 record had some craziness in the bullpen which inflated their team ERA to 5.06 this month.  Jake Cousins and Brayden Burke were not up to the challenge as they each had ERAs of 16.20 and 12.00 with starter Cole Irvin getting ready for his blue slip going 1-3 with an ERA of 7.67.   However, Pablo Sandoval in his one start pitched a complete game giving upjust a 2-run homerun as his only mistake.  Pablo Lopez has staked his claim as the Smoke new ace 

 7-4   SLS L  7-8      14-15 Finnegan   Cousins               40-39   3rd  7.5
 7-5   SLS W  4-2       6-4  Lopez      Walker     McArthur   41-39   3rd  7.0
 7-6   SLS L  9-14     13-20 Castillo   Irvin                 41-40   3rd  7.5
 7-10  TAC W  8-3       9-4  Montgomery Myers                 42-40   3rd  7.0
 7-11  TAC W  4-3      11-8  Lopez      Voth                  43-40   2nd  6.5
 7-12  TAC L  1-11      7-16 Pallante   Irvin                 43-41   3rd  7.0
 7-16  RIB L  3-4 (11) 12-11 Brasier    Johnson    Iglesias   43-42   3rd  7.5
 7-17  RIB W 12-4      10-12 Lopez      Peterson   Harvey     44-42   3rd  7.0
 7-18  RIB L  2-5       2-9  Cease      Irvin      Iglesias   44-43   3rd  7.5
 7-19  VIR W  9-8      14-12 Lorenzen   Parker     Johnson    45-43   3rd  7.0
 7-20  VIR W 12-2      12-11 Sandoval   Blackburn             46-43   2nd  6.5
 7-21  VIR L  2-3       6-10 Rogers*    McArthur              46-44   3rd  7.0
 7-28  HUG W  8-4      10-7  Montgomery Rea        Johnson    47-44   2nd  6.5
 7-29  HUG W  6-3       7-6  Irvin      Ashcraft              48-44   2nd  6.0
 7-30  HUG L  3-5       9-7  Abbott     Lorenzen   Jax        48-45   2nd  6.5

Influence Through Excellence Lars  Nielsen Instructional Faculty - Bible lars.nielsen@valorchristian.com 3775 Grace Blvd. Highlands Ranch, CO 80126 Valor Christian High School