Game Recaps

The Kernersville Bulldogs found late-inning heroics once again angainst the Catawba Valley Stars to capture the 2008 CVCL Championship. The Bulldogs defeated the Stars 1-0 behind the masterpiece turned in on the mound by Kernersville's Greg Conrad. The tournament championship marks the second time in three seasons that Kernersville has captured both the regular season and tournament titles in the Carolina Virginia Collegiate league. The 2008 tournament championship also marks the fifth time in six seasons that the Bulldogs have been crowned summer league champions. With the 1-0 championship game victory, Kernersville finishes their season with a record of 40-11. The 40 wins marks a Bulldog single season franchise record for victories

Monday night's championship game lived up to its billing with an old-fashioned pitcher's duel between Catawba Valley's Dustin Belk and Kernersville's Greg Conrad. Neither team's offense could figure out the opposing pitcher all night long as each starter exchanged zeros for seven consecutive innings. The Bulldogs squandered one of their few scoring chances in the first inning when they were unable to capitalize on leadoff singles by Seth Austin and Zack Strickland. After escaping the early jam, Belk would settle down and hold the Bulldogs scoreless until the eighth inning. With the score still tied at 0-0 in the home half of the eighth inning, Kernersville was finally able to break through with the eventual game-winning run off of Belk. Seth Austin reached on an error and tried to advance an extra base on the misplay. While attempting to reach second base on the play, the Catawba Valley defense committed a second consecutive throwing error to allow Austin to advance to third with nobody out. The Bulldogs would quickly capitalize on the break, as Murray White delivered the game-winning RBI single to give the Bulldogs the eventual 1-0 victory. But the story of the night was the pitching of Greg Conrad. Conrad threw a complete game shutout on only two hits and struck out five Catawba Valley hitters to earn his team-leading seventh victory of the season.

Leading the way on offense for Kernersville was Tournament MVP Josh Strickland. Strickland recorded a 3-for-3 performance on the night. Andre Nichols had an outstanding game for Kernersville registering a 2-for-3 night while Murray White was 1-for-1 with the game-winning RBI.