Today's News

Tonight (Wednesday) will be Bedford County night, as the three local girls? soccer teams are joined by Heritage at the District semifinals in Forest.

Girls? soccer is the only sport in which all three county teams advanced to the semis (as well as to Regional play).

Liberty punched its tick by beating up on Rustburg, a team notable for its winless season as well as a grittiness and gutsiness. The final score was 7-0 in favor of the Minettes.

Staunton River took care of an overmatched, but noble Amherst team, eliminating the Lancers by the score of 2-0.

While the rest of the Seminole District was slugging it out on Monday, three Jefferson Forest teams were catching a break while staying above the fray. The Forest baseball and both soccer teams stayed home, a nice benefit of their regular season championships.

Since the departure of Appomattox, the Seminole District has seven teams. Therefore, the District champ in each sport gets a bye for the first round of the tournament.

One baseball game was a pitcher?s paradise. The other was a batter?s bonanza. Both ended in defeat for county teams.

Liberty hosted, and was topped, 1-0 by Amherst while Staunton River visited, and was beaten, by Heritage 9-8.

The Minutemen and the Eagles have the rest of the year to reflect on the games, as the losses eliminated them from further tournament play. Top-seeded Jefferson Forest is the only local team still in the running.

Along with the usual pitches for ?free? software and pleas from the widows of Nigerian multimillionaires for my bank account number, I received an interesting e-mail in my inbox today.

The note was a press release on behalf of the ?Innocent Olympic victims,? those athletes who competed (and won) on relay teams that included Marion Jones, during the 2000 Sydney Olympic games.