Tech Gunman’s Disturbing Writings Raised Concerns

By MATT APUZZO
The Associated press
BLACKSBURG, Va. — The gunman in the Virginia Tech massacre was a sullen loner who alarmed professors and classmates with his twisted, blood-drenched creative writing and left a rambling note in his dorm room raging against women and rich kids.
A chilling picture emerged Tuesday of Cho Seung-Hui — a 23-year-old senior majoring in English — a day after the bloodbath that left 33 people dead, including Cho, who killed himself as police closed in.
News reports said that he may have been taking medication for depression and that he was becoming increasingly violent and erratic.
Despite the many warning signs that came to light in the bloody aftermath, police and university officials offered no clues as to exactly what set Cho off on the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history.
“He was a loner, and we’re having difficulty finding information about him,” school spokesman Larry Hincker said.
A student who attended Virginia Tech last fall provided obscenity- and violence-laced screenplays that he said Cho wrote as part of a playwriting class they both took. One was about a fight between a stepson and his stepfather, and involved throwing of hammers and attacks with a chainsaw. Another was about students fantasizing about stalking and killing a teacher who sexually molested them.
“When we read Cho’s plays, it was like something out of a nightmare. The plays had really twisted, macabre violence that used weapons I wouldn’t have even thought of,” former classmate Ian McFarlane, now an AOL employee, wrote in a blog posted on an AOL Web site. He said he and other students “were talking to each other with serious worry about whether he could be a school shooter.”
“We always joked we were just waiting for him to do something, waiting to hear about something he did,” said another classmate, Stephanie Derry. “But when I got the call it was Cho who had done this, I started crying, bawling.”
Professor Carolyn Rude, chairwoman of the university’s English department, said Cho’s writing was so disturbing that he had been referred to the university’s counseling service.
“Sometimes, in creative writing, people reveal things and you never know if it’s creative or if they’re describing things, if they’re imagining things or just how real it might be,” Rude said. “But we’re all alert to not ignore things like this.”
She said she did not know when he was referred for counseling, or what the outcome was. Rude refused to release any of his writings or his grades, citing privacy laws. The counseling service refused to comment.
Cho — who arrived in the United States as boy from South Korea in 1992 and was raised in suburban Washington, D.C., where his parents worked at a dry cleaners — left a note in his dorm room that was found after the bloodbath.
A government official, who spoke of condition of anonymity because he had not been authorized to discuss details of the case, said the note had been described to him as “anti-woman, anti-rich kid.”
The Chicago Tribune reported on its Web site that the note railed against “rich kids,” “debauchery” and “deceitful charlatans” on campus. ABC, citing law enforcement sources, said that the note, several pages long, explains Cho’s actions and says, “You caused me to do this.”
Citing unidentified sources, the Tribune also said Cho had recently set a fire in a dorm room and had stalked some women.
Monday’s rampage consisted of two attacks, more than two hours apart _ first at a dormitory, where two people were killed, then inside a classroom building, where 31 people, including Cho, died. Two handguns — a 9 mm and a .22-caliber — were found in the classroom building.
The Washington Post quoted law enforcement sources as saying Cho died with the words “Ismail Ax” in red ink on one of his arms, but they were not sure what that meant.
According to court papers, police found a “bomb threat” note — directed at engineering school buildings — near the victims in the classroom building. In the past three weeks, Virginia Tech was hit with two other bomb threats. Investigators have not publicly connected those threats to Cho.
Cho graduated from Westfield High School in Chantilly, Va., in 2003. His family lived in an off-white, two-story townhouse in Centreville, Va.
Two of those killed in the rampage, Reema Samaha and Erin Peterson, graduated from Westfield High in 2006. But there was no immediate word from authorities on whether Cho knew the two young women and singled them out.
“He was very quiet, always by himself,” neighbor Abdul Shash said. Shash said Cho spent a lot of his free time playing basketball and would not respond if someone greeted him.
Classmates painted a similar picture. Some said that on the first day of a British literature class last year, the 30 or so students went around and introduced themselves. When it was Cho’s turn, he didn’t speak.
On the sign-in sheet where everyone else had written their names, Cho had written a question mark. “Is your name, ‘Question mark?’” classmate Julie Poole recalled the professor asking. The young man offered little response.
Cho spent much of that class sitting in the back of the room, wearing a hat and seldom participating. In a small department, Cho distinguished himself for being anonymous. “He didn’t reach out to anyone. He never talked,” Poole said.
“We just really knew him as the question mark kid,” Poole said.
One law enforcement official said Cho’s backpack contained a receipt for a March purchase of a Glock 9 mm pistol. Cho held a green card, meaning he was a legal, permanent resident. That meant he was eligible to buy a handgun unless he had been convicted of a felony.
Roanoke Firearms owner John Markell said his shop sold the Glock and a box of practice ammo to Cho 36 days ago for $571.
“He was a nice, clean-cut college kid. We won’t sell a gun if we have any idea at all that a purchase is suspicious,” Markell said.
Investigators stopped short of saying Cho carried out both attacks. But State Police ballistics tests showed one gun was used in both.
And two law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the information had not been announced, said Cho’s fingerprints were on both guns, whose serial numbers had been filed off.
With classes canceled for the rest of the week, many students left town in a hurry, lugging pillows, sleeping bags and backpacks down the sidewalks.
Jessie Ferguson, 19, a freshman from Arlington, headed for her car with tears streaming down her cheeks.
“I’m still kind of shaky,” she said. “I had to pump myself up just to kind of come out of the building. I was going to come out, but it took a little bit of ‘OK, it’s going to be all right. There’s lots of cops around.’”
She added: “I just don’t want to be on campus.”
On Tuesday afternoon, thousands of people gathered in the basketball arena for a memorial service for the victims, with an overflow crowd of thousands watching on a jumbo TV screen in the football stadium. President Bush and the first lady attended.
“As you draw closer to your families in the coming days, I ask you to reach out to those who ache for sons and daughters who are never coming home,” Bush said.
Virginia Tech President Charles Steger received a 30-second standing ovation, despite bitter complaints from parents and students that the university should have locked down the campus immediately after the first burst of gunfire.
Stories of heroism and ingenuity emerged Tuesday.
Liviu Librescu, an Israeli engineering and math lecturer, was killed after he was said to have protected his students’ lives by blocking the doorway of his classroom from the gunman. And one student, an Eagle Scout, survived after using an electrical cord as a tourniquet around his bleeding thigh, a doctor reported.
Kevin and Cindy Deck of Roanoke met at Virginia Tech and graduated from the school. Their daughter Natalie is a fourth-year architecture student, while son Daniel is a freshman business major.
“We both went to work this morning,” Cindy Deck said. “I teach school, and by the first bell ringing, I thought, I can’t do this. I need to be with my kids. It’s just one of those days you’ve got to be with them.”
Her husband added: “We’ve been struggling with an immediate impulse just to run and grab our kids and bring them home.”

Associated Press writers Stephen Manning in Centreville, Va.; Matt Barakat in Richmond, Va.; Lara Jakes Jordan in Washington; and Vicki Smith, Sue Lindsey and Justin Pope in Blacksburg contributed to this report.

 

Beale Watches Police Chase At Tech Through Glass Wall

Virginia Tech sophomore Margaret Beale got to class early Monday morning.
“I was sitting in the waiting area at about 9:45,” she said yesterday.
She was in Hancock, a classroom building next to Norris, and at the time only a glass wall separated her from the terror on campus.
Before her business law class began, the Halifax County resident heard gunshots and saw policemen running by the wall.
The students ran into the classroom.
“A professor got a call and the police told us to stay put,” recalled the history major.
About 30 minutes later someone, she’s not sure who, told the students to get out.
“It was very, very scary,” said Beale. “We heard rumors people were shooting from the rooftops.”
When the students left the building they were in a parking area, so students with cars left.
“I didn’t have a car and someone on a loudspeaker was saying take cover,” recalled Beale, “so another student and I hid behind a car.”
It was then her teacher, Professor Giles, spotted the two and told Beale and the other student to get in his car. There was already one other student with Giles, according to Beale. The professor drove the students to a safe area.
When she was interviewed by telephone Tuesday morning, Beale said that she had not been back on campus, but that she and some friends might attend the service held at Tech that afternoon.
President George Bush and Gov. Tim Kaine were among the dignitaries attending the Tuesday event.
“It’s going to be totally different going back to the classroom,” added the sophomore. “I don’t know how any of those in Norris can ever go back.”
She also said that she didn’t know any of the students killed or injured when the alleged gunman, Cho Seung-Hui, went on a deadly rampage that left 33 students and professors dead.
How are students reacting to the tragedy?
Some students were upset at how things were handled, according to the sophomore.
“I don’t know all the specifics, I just know some students are upset at the gap between the first shooting and the second.”
Beale thinks officials should have canceled classes. “They could have saved lives,” she said. “They made it easy but, again, we don’t know what they were thinking or trying to do.
“It is hard to believe that this happened at Tech because it is a safe campus, a good school and the area is so friendly. When something like this happens, it is a shock because a school is supposed to be a safe place. I don’t know how I can honestly ever feel safe again on campus.”
Although Virginia Tech alums contacted yesterday were relieved that no one from Halifax County was killed or injured in the massacre, all were sad.
“I am hurting for my Virginia Tech family,” said Carlyle Wimbish, president of the Halifax County Chapter of the Hokie Club and the Alumni Association.
Wimbish is also very proud of the Tech students being interviewed.
“They love Virginia Tech and I feel like we will come out of this,” added Wimbish. “This could have happened anywhere and it is not going to change the fact that people love Virginia Tech. I am proud of the students, the way they have conducted themselves.”

 

Obituaries

Bertha Fallen Adams
Bertha Fallen Adams, 80, of Brookneal died April 16, 2007, at Heritage Hall Nursing Home. She was first married to the late Clyde William Hall and secondly to the late Odell Garnett Adams.
Mrs. Adams was born in Halifax County on May 3, 1926, a daughter of the late Andrew Jackson Fallen and Stella Bigger Fallen. She was a member of Childrey Baptist Church.
Survivors include two daughters, Barbara H. Waller of Nathalie and Cathy A. Worsham of Hurt; four grandchildren, Tanya W. Powell and husband, Floyd, of Scottsburtg, Jody S. Waller and wife, Kimberly, of Nathalie, Melanie D. Waller of Rustburg, and Ashley K. Worsham of Hurt; four great-grandchildren, Kayla and Jillian Waller, and Hunter and Mason Powell; and two sisters, Myrtis Bomar and Inez Dalton, both of Brookneal.
Two sons, Glenn William Hall and Carter Dean Hall, preceded Mrs. Adams in death.
A funeral service will be held tomorrow, April 19, at 2 p.m. at Henderson Funeral Home Chapel by the Rev. Rodney Barwick and Jack Willis with burial to follow in Catawba Baptist Church Cemetery.
The family will receive friends from 7:00 to 8:30 this evening, April 18, at Henderson Funeral Home and Cremation Service, Brookneal and will be at the home of Barbara Waller and Ted Lester other times.
Dorothy A. Coleman

Dorothy A. Coleman, 64, of 6137 Howard P. Anderson Road, Crystal Hill died April 16,2007, at her home.
Mrs. Coleman was born in Halifax County March 17, 1943, to the late Louis Dixon and Janie Jeffress Dixon, and was married to John M. Coleman Sr. She was a member of Spanish Grove Baptist Church.
Survivors include her husband; one son, John Coleman Jr. of Fort Hood, Texas; three daughters, Angela Jeffress of Scottsburg, Alice Chavis of Portsmouth and Karen Penick of Halifax; two half-sisters, Deloris Morton and Helen Jeffreys, both of South Boston; one half-brother, Alexander Morton of Richmond; one foster sister, Earlene Medley of South Boston; two foster brothers, William Bouldin and James Bouldin, both of South Boston; 11 grandchildren; three sons-in-law, Rufus Jeffress of Scottsburg, Roland Chavis of Portsmouth and Jesse Penick of Halifax; one daughter-in-law, Lucy Coleman of Fort Hood; and one brother-in-law, Retired Sargeant Major Thomas Morton of Stewarts Draft.
One sister, Brenda King, preceded Mrs. Coleman in death.
Funeral services will be held tomorrow, April 19, at 1 p.m. at Spanish Grove Baptist Church with the Rev. William Coleman officiating. Burial will follow in the church cemetery.
The family will receive friends at the home.
Those wishing to give memorials are asked to consider Hospice and the American Cancer Society.
Noel Lindy Throckmorton

Noel Lindy Throckmorton, 76, of 76 Maple Avenue, Halifax died April 15, 2007, at Halifax Regional Hospital.
Mr. Throckmorton was born in Clover January 16, 1931, the son of the late W. Vincent Throckmorton and Lizzie Nichols Throckmorton and was married to Nita S. Throckmorton. He was a member of Clover Baptist Church and Dryburg Hunt Club.
Survivors include his wife; one son, David N. Throckmorton of Halifax; two daughters, Kathryn T. Shiflett and husband, Charles, of Lynchburg and Jennifer T. Bomar and husband, Tony, of South Boston; two granddaughters, Kaitlin Shiflett of Lynchburg and Hailey Bomar of South Boston; three sisters, Bercie Glass and husband, Jesse, of Nathalie, Joyce Jeter of Florence, Ala., and Fran Martin and husband, A.G., of Fayetteville, N.C.
One sister, Frances Denmeade; and two brothers, Earl and Woodrow Throckmorton, preceded Mr. Throckmorton in death.
Funeral services will be held today, April 18, at 2 p.m. at Clover Baptist Church with the Rev. Tom Walker officiating. Burial will follow in Clover Cemetery.
Those wishing to give memorials are asked to consider a charity of your choice.
Barbara Stewart White
Barbara Stewart White, 71, of 1067 Ash Avenue, South Boston died April 16, 2007, at her home.
Mrs. White was born in Person County, N.C. December 2, 1935, to the late William Elijah Stewart and Banna Day Stewart and was married to the late Donald McCown White. She was a member of Ash Avenue Baptist Church, the American Legion Post 8 Ladies Auxiliary, and was a retired teacher with the Halifax County School System.
Survivors include two daughters, Donna W. Daniel and husband, Mike, of Halifax and Dianna W. Tiller and husband, Billy, of South Boston; and two grandchildren, Jami D. Hunt and husband, Stephen, of Radford and Cory A. Tiller of South Boston.
Funeral services for Mrs. White will be held tomorrow, April 19, at 11 a.m. at Ash Avenue Baptist Church with the Rev. John Eure officiating. Burial will follow at Halifax Memorial Gardens.
The family will receive friends at Powell Funeral Home this evening, April 18, from 7:00 until 8:30, and other times at the home.
Those wishing to give memorials are asked to consider Ash Avenue Baptist Church Building Fund, 900 Ash Avenue, South Boston, Halifax Regional Hospice, 2204 Wilborn Avenue, South Boston, or Halifax County Cancer Association, P.O. Box 875, South Boston, 24592.

Racing Is Academic

By Joe Chandler
Sports Editor
From a meager beginning in the fall of 2005 with a toolbox, some tools, a small group of eager students and a pair of experienced instructors, the Halifax County Motorsports Academy has put itself and its students on the fast track to success.
Today, the Motorsports Academy is fielding its own race team in the NASCAR Limited Sportsman Division at South Boston Speedway. It also has students helping one of their fellow classmates with his racing team and has students gearing up for a second season of go-kart racing at the kart track at South Boston Speedway.
Success has come quickly for the academy’s Limited Sportsman racing team. Driver Terri Marks of Capron is in second place in the Limited Sportsman Division at South Boston Speedway.
Also, George Spencer, a student in the Motorsports Academy program, stands tenth in the Limited Sportsman Division points standings at South Boston Speedway.
The success of the program doesn’t stop there.
Fifteen students in the Motorsports Academy at Halifax County High School have their NASCAR licenses and serve as the pit crew for Marks. Another 50 students are signed up to observe in the pit area where they can learn about pit work and race procedures.
Doug Newcomb, one of the Motorsports Academy instructors and a longtime friend of Marks’ serves as the crew chief and directs the students. Buddy Wilborn, the other instructor for the Motorsports Academy, is licensed as a NASCAR official and, with Newcomb’s help, oversees the program.
“Doug has been a tremendous help and he’s a big asset to this program,” Wilborn said.
“He has experience both as a driver and as someone who has worked on racecars. Doug is good with the students and the students relate well with him and are learning a good deal from him.”
The Motorsports Academy is unique in its own right as an educational tool. Making the program even more unique is the fact that students can earn a varsity letter in motorsports if they meet certain criteria. Those criteria include that students be at least a sophomore, have a minimum grade-point-average of 2.0 and spend a minimum of 300 hours participation.
This, Wilborn says, is a huge step forward from where the program started.
“It took off faster than I ever dreamed it would,” Wilborn said.
“ We went into the program starting with a motorsports class. With the support of the community and South Boston Speedway and the Mattioli Foundation, it has grown tremendously. From everywhere you could ask, from race teams, students, the general public, the support has been great. It’s unbelievable the response that we have had from people.
“I never would have dreamed when I was put in this position last year to teach a motorsports class that a year later we would be maintaining a car,” Wilborn added.
“That’s a tremendous opportunity and responsibility.”
Students Receive Hands-On Learning Experiences
Students involved in the Motorsports Academy learn from textbooks, demonstrations by the instructors and, most importantly, through hands-on work in the shop at the school and at the racetrack. A variety of projects have kept the students busy.
“If you look at the projects we have to work on, we have had a good variation,” Wilborn added.
“We have a quarter-scale tractor the Heritage Foundation donated to us, a mini-stock race car that the Mattioli Foundation donated to us, a drag racing car that has been donated to us by Joe Bailey and we have Terri’s car. We’re also working with George Spencer, a student in the class that has his own car. We have a lot going on.”
Having the race team, Wilborn said, is a big step and a big undertaking for the Motorsports Academy.
“Last year we were looking at kids working internships and going to the speedway and working with some teams to see what it’s like working on a car in the pit area and see what makes the car run around the racetrack,” Wilborn pointed out.
“This year we’re able to do that in two ways – we’re able to maintain the racecar here in the shop at the school and the students are going to the racetrack and seeing what changes they can make to improve the car and actually see what those changes do.”
Working on racecars in the shop and at the track requires a working knowledge of various mathematic and scientific principles as well as mechanical knowledge and ability. As a result, students are able to apply what they learn in other academic classes to the work they do as participants in the motorsports academy.
“Racing is a lot about seeing what works on different days and working from there – trial and error, plus the knowledge,” Wilborn explained.
“The first thing we try to do here is take the students, teach them tool knowledge and let them do hands-on work with tools. I emphasize that a lot. We focus on that a lot during the first nine weeks of class. If you can come away from this program with only one thing, it’s how to work with a set of hand tools and learn how to read mircometers.
“We want to teach the kids and teach them how things work,” Wilborn continued.. “Although the kids do the hands-on work, we’re going to be looking behind them. We don’t ask a kid to put a part on the racecar and put the tire on it and go. We check behind everything that goes on.”
Karting Program Involves Younger Students
The Motorsports Academy also has a karting program for younger students in which students have the opportunity to race go-karts at South Boston Speedway and work on the go-karts.
“This year seventh, eighth and ninth-graders will have a shot at the karting program,” Wilborn noted.
“With what we had signed up before Christmas and over the last few weeks we have 110- to 120 kids sign up for the karting program.”
That number will have to be pared down, he pointed out.
“We’re looking at roughly 50 kids and will have five divisions. We’ll have to look at some criteria for picking the students for this program. Last year we went out on a trial basis to see how everything worked and everything worked well. We’ve got parents calling us asking us how they can get their kids into the karting program.”
The karting program, Wilborn says, has helped spark students’ interest in going deeper into the program.
“There was a student in the karting program last year and he took my class and now he’s working with a race team,” Wilborn said.
“He’s in the tenth grade. He had an interest but with the Motorsports Academy here and seeing how we work hands-on, I was able to lead him into a direction that he really likes and has a part-time job as a result.”
The karting program, Wilborn said, is also an important facet of the Motorsports Academy.
“A lot of people say it’s just an old go-kart,” Wilborn noted.
“ But, if you at today’s Cup stars, their career started somewhere in a kart-racing program. You don’t know what kind of driving ability you might see.
Academy Offers Double Opportunity For Marks
For Marks, the 2004 South Boston Speedway Grand Stock Division champion, being involved with the Motorsports Academy program has provided her with two major opportunities, one of which is being able to continue her racing career. The other opportunity is being able to work with the Halifax County High School students.
“It’s a great opportunity for me, not only for being able to help me along with my racing program and career but, more importantly, I think, is the opportunity that it’s giving me to help provide something for the students here at the high school,” Marks said.
“Actually, I probably would not be racing this year had this opportunity not come along. However, I don’t want to dwell on what it is doing for me. I have enjoyed being able to share what I have learned in 13 years of racing with these students. This has offered me another side of racing in being able to teach and show the students what I’ve been able to learn over the years.”
Marks is committed to working very hard to perform well on the track and help bring as much success to the Motorsports Academy as possible.
“I think success, within itself, will invoke more interest in the students and give them a little something more to work for,” Marks said.
“They will be able to see how the work they have done on the car here at school can translate when we do well on the racetrack.”
Marks said the Motorsports Academy can open doors for students in a variety of motorsports related fields.
“I don’t think students realize what opportunities there are for them beyond high school in the area of motorsports and how the other classes they take, whether it be math or physics or whatever, can apply to an activity such as motorsports,” Marks pointed out.
“This (the Motorsports Academy) is a good opportunity to draw them in and get them interested and then maybe be able to pursue other things beyond this.”
Marks said having a Motorsports Academy in Halifax County is a great fit for this community.
“With the track (South Boston Speedway) being so close and with the interest in this community, this is an ideal area and an ideal high school to be able to pursue this,” Marks pointed out.
“South Boston Speedway and the Mattioli Foundation have made significant donations to the program and are doing a great deal to help the Motorsports Academy and its students. This is, as best as I know, the first high school in the country to offer this at this level. I believe it is a logical fit. If you look at what NASCAR is doing now, obviously, the drivers are getting younger and younger. When you can peak their interest at the age that they are now it’s a benefit.”
The students, Marks said, can reap huge benefits from the program.
“I think it gives a lot of these students direction,” she said.
“I think the foresight that the administration in this school system and in this county has in giving the students this opportunity can put the students on a more positive path to be able to do more things and prepare themselves better for what comes after high school.”

Lions Win Doubleheader

By Doug Ford
G-V Staff Writer
The Halifax County Middle School baseball team returned to action after almost a three-week break Monday with a double header sweep at Fieldale-Collinsville Middle School.
Each game went five innings, with Halifax winning game one 6-4 behind Zack Clem’s three-run triple, Dylan Sons’ two hits and two RBI’s and Kelvin Davis’ RBI groundout.
The Lions banged out 16 hits in a 16-7 win in game two, Clem and William Worley with three hits each, Kelsey Campbell, L.J. Barnett and Dylan Hendricks each with two, and Travis Goode, Sons, Adam Hammock and Aron Puryear with one each.
Each member of the Lions’ pitching staff got work during the double header, Aron Puryear and Ryan Puryear pitching game one and Sons, Tyler Long and Worley combining for the game two win.
The Lions return to Southside Middle School Conference action here today with a double header against Russell, the first game schedule to start at 4:30 p.m.
Halifax 6 Fieldale-Collinsville 4
The Lions broke a 2-2 tie with a four-run fourth inning on the way to a 6-4 win in game one.
A two-out bases loaded triple by Clem was the key blow in the fourth inning rally, following a leadoff walk to Aron Puryear, two out walk to Davis, RBI single by Sons and walk to Long.
Halifax and Fieldale-Collinsville each scored twice in the second inning, Aron Puryear reaching on an error and Worley on a base hit. A passed ball advanced both runners before an RBI groundout by Davis and RBI double by Sons.
The host team used a combination of two singles, two walks, a wild pitch and stolen bases to tie the score in the bottom of the second, but Halifax rallied in the fourth for a 6-2 lead.
Fieldale-Collinsville scored twice in its final at-bat on a walk, fielder’s choice, walk, single and double, but the rally fell short.
Worley and Sons each had two hits to lead Halifax, Worley with a triple and single and Sons with a double and single, with Clem adding his triple.
Aron Puryear picked up the win, hurling the first three innings, before Ryan Puryear came on for the fourth and fifth frames.
Halifax 16 Fieldale-Collinsville 7
The Lions scored 16 runs on 16 hits to take game two and complete the sweep.
Clem and Worley led Lions hitters, each with three hits, Clem hitting a triple and two singles for two RBI’s, and Worley three RBI singles.
Campbell had two hits, including a two-run double, Hendricks two hits and a pair of RBI’s and Barnett two hits and a run scored.
Sons had a two-run single, Goode an RBI triple, and Hammock a RBI double for Halifax, while Aron Puryear added a base hit.
The game was tied 1-1 after one inning, the Lions scoring on a walk to Sons and a RBI hit by Clem, but the Lions plated ten runs on eight hits in the second to help them pull away.
Barnett singled, Hendricks walked and Goode tripled to start the rally, while Sons reached on an error and Long walked.
An RBI single by Clem, two run double by Campbell and RBI single by Worley kept the inning going. Barnett hit another single and Hendricks a two-run base hit before Will Nichols and Goode walked.
Sons finished the rally with his two-run base hit as the Lions took a 11-1 lead.
Each team scored three times in the third, the Lions on a triple by Clem and singles by Campbell, Worley and Hendricks, and the host team on a walk, hit batsman, single and passed ball.
Sons walked and scored on Hammock’s double, Aron Puryear singled and Worley hit an RBI single in the fourth for Halifax and Fieldale-Collinsville added three runs on two walks, a wild pitch, two-run single and RBI single in the fifth to finish the scoring.
Halifax used three pitchers in the nightcap, Sons starting and pitching two innings, and Long hurling innings three and four, each pitcher collecting three strikeouts.
Worley finished the game in the fifth inning, striking out two batters.

Lady Comets Sweep Albemarle

By Doug Ford
G-V Staff Writer
The Comets varsity softball team entered its Western Valley District opener against E.C. Glass last night with a good dose of momentum after a 7-1 and 8-3 doubleheader sweep at Albemarle Thursday.
Halifax finished with nine hits in each five-inning game, while Comets hurlers Stephanie Clark and Paige Rickman held Albemarle to three and four hits, respectively.
Betty Rose and Lashunda Davis led the Comets in hitting for the first game, each with three hits, while Melissa Morris, Rickman and Rose each had a pair of hits in game two.
Halifax 7 Albemarle 1
Rose and Davis had a combined six hits and three RBI’s, Emily New a two-run double and Morris a two-run base hit as the Comets took game one 7-1.
Rose and Davis each finished with a double and two singles, Rose driving home a run and Davis two runs.
New had her two-run double and Morris a two-run single, while Ally Thompson added a double and run scored for the Comets.
The Comets and Patriots were tied 1-1 after one inning, Rose with a two-out double and Davis an RBI single for Halifax, while a bunt single and Comets error led to the run for Albemarle.
Thompson hit a two-out double, Rose followed with a base hit and Davis with an RBI single to give Halifax a 2-1 lead in the third, and the Comets tacked on five runs on four hits in the fifth inning.
Clark reached on an error, and Rose hit a one-out RBI single to plate Clark. Davis followed with a double, Rickman reached on a fielder’s choice and Morris hit a two-run single.
New’s two-out, two-run double made it 7-1, plenty of cushion for Clark, who pitched all five innings in game one.
Clark hurled a three-hitter, striking out seven batters and walking none in five innings.
Halifax 8 Albemarle 3
The Comets rallied from a 3-0 first-inning deficit, scoring four runs in the third and four in the fifth to beat the Patriots 8-3.
Morris, Rose and Rickman each had two hits to pace the Comets, Morris with a two-run triple, Rickman with a RBI double and RBI single, and Rose with two base hits and a RBI.
Davis and Thompson each had an RBI single for the Comets, who rallied after Albemarle scored three runs on three hits, a walk and a Comets error in the first inning.
Thompson reached first base on an error to start the third frame, and Clark reached on another error, this with one out, before Morris hit a two-run triple.
Rose followed with a RBI single, Davis on another error and Rickman hit an RBI single to make it 4-3.
The Comets banged out five hits and plated four runs in the fifth to give them some breathing room.
Rose singled with one out and stole second before Davis drove her home with a single. Davis stole second and went to third on a passed ball before Rickman doubled her home.
Heather Hudson reached on a fielder’s choice, Thompson hit an RBI single, Amber Bowman walked and Clark singled in the rally that made it 8-3.
Rickman went the distance on the mound for the Comets, hurling all five innings.
She allowed four hits while striking out three and walking three batters.