Sports Report – July 9, 2020

Vermont Summer Baseball League opens a month-long season
It has been a year since summer high school baseball has seen the diamond through a traditional American Legion season. This year’s season was cancelled in April due to the spread of the coronavirus. However, the Vermont Summer Baseball League was created, made up of many of the Legion teams that normally formed North and South conferences. Six games were scheduled with the first played July 2. CVU students are prevalent on the S.D. Ireland club that faced Essex that day.
Aided by three Essex errors and six first-inning runs, Ireland won the game 10-6. Redhawk Storm Rushford pitched, and his teammates Baker Angstrom and Tyler Skaflestad led the offense.

S.D. Ireland is back on the base paths. Photo from last year’s American Legion State Tournament. Photo by Al Frey
S.D. Ireland is back on the base paths.Photo from last year’s American Legion State Tournament. Photo by Al Frey.

The new league carries precautions for the virus. Players wear masks when needed and do not hang out together in the dugouts; rather they spread themselves in front and on the sides, maintaining a six-foot distance between people rule. The umpires wear masks, and they do not touch the baseballs.

Delayed starts on the docket for high school sports
The Vermont Principals’ Association has withheld the start of fall sports practices, originally to begin August 10, according to an article in the July 4 Burlington Free Press. Its Standards’ Committee recommended waiting until the “first student day for a school.” This could be in late August or early September with title games occurring a month later. Sports that are impacted include field hockey, soccer, football, volleyball, cross-country running, golf and bass fishing.

Shrine football game cancelled
The annual Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl football game between Vermont and New Hampshire was originally scheduled to be played August 1 at Castleton State University. The cause was concern about spread of the coronavirus. It would have marked the 67th Shrine game. Prior to last year’s win by New Hampshire, the Green Mountain team had defeated the Granite Staters for three years in a row. New Hampshire still leads the series with 48 wins and 16 losses. There have been two ties.