COLLEGIATETIMES
wednesday march 19, 2008 blacksburg, va.
www.collegiatetimes.com
news PLAY DEDICATED TO LIBRESCU A woman from Haddonfield, N.J., is dedicating a play she is co-directing and co-producing to Liviu Librescu in honor of his bravery on April 16. The play, titled “Number the Stars,” tells the story of Danish resistance against German Nazis who closed down Jewish-owned stores and forced Jews into concentration camps during World War II. Librescu, an engineering professor, was killed when he blocked the door of his classroom so his students could jump out of the window before gunman SeungHui Cho could enter. Librescu was a Holocaust survivor.
“We’re honored to be here … Arguably, this is the most important game I’ve played in my Yankee career because it makes you realize all the important things about life.” — Alex Rodriguez
Yankees leave their mark
IRVIN NEW ASSOCIATE VP Virginia Tech officially has a new associate vice president for human resources. Hal Irvin has been named to the position, where he will lead human strategies and services at the school. Irvin was formerly the executive director of organizational development at Georgia Tech before making the move to Blacksburg. The Virginia Tech human resources department handles hiring processes, employee benefits and relations, and other various employment-related policies.
SPEAKER WILL PRESENT ON SPACE TONIGHT The future of space exploration will be the topic of choice for Eric Anderson, the president and chief executive officer of Space Adventures who will be speaking on campus tonight in Burruss Auditorium. Anderson co-founded his company, which hopes to allow private citizens to travel in space, with other members of the aerospace and adventure travel industries. The company has sold over $200 million in flights for space exploration and hopes that in the next decade it will fly more people to space than the amount of people who have ever flown. The speech will begin at 8 p.m.
weather RAINY high 67, low 37
corrections If you see something in today’s paper that needs to be corrected, please e-mail our public editor at publiceditor@collegiatetimes.com, or call 540.231.9865.
coming up TOMORROW’S CT See how the men’s basketball team fares against Morgan State in the first round of the NIT tonight in tomorrow’s CT. Check out a photo gallery of the Yankees game yesterday on our Web site.
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An independent, student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community since 1903 105th year • issue 34
JIM DICKHANS/SPPS
Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman, Yankees President Randy Levine, Yankees General Partner Hal Steinbrener, Tech Rector Jacob Lutz, President Charles Steger, and Athletic Director Jim Weaver watch as balloons are let go in memory of the 32 victims of April 16.
RYAN MCCONNELL
MEMORABLE EXPERIENCE FOR TECH PLAYERS
ct sports editor In front of 5,311 excited fans, the New York Yankees won yesterday’s exhibition 11-0 over Virginia Tech at English Field. Scheduled last May by Yankees owner George Steinbrenner as an outreach after the April 16 shootings, the two teams took the field after a moment of silence and the release of 32 giant balloons in memory of the victims. “It doesn’t matter if there was any connection between the Yankees and Virginia Tech prior to the event,” said Yankees President Randy Levine. “We all had to rally around these brave people and the relationship grows from there. It was the human factor.” Yankees’ left fielder Johnny Damon led the game off with a four pitch walk, and the first pitch from Tech pitcher Andrew Wells was high and inside on Damon and elicited a round of “oohhs” from the crowd. “It definitely wasn’t my intention at all, going into it I just wanted to throw strikes and get ahead. Little bit of emotion, little bit of nerves, jitters, things of that nature. I just let it go and that’s where it ended up,” Wells said. “In the end I’m kind of glad it did, because I got Damon’s batting gloves out of it, got a couple handshakes, had a nice talk with him.” “It was probably about 8 or 9 inches from my face. It was a little tough to see because the background was the clouds and everything,” Damon said. Yankees’ shortstop and captain Derek Jeter followed with a shot off the glove of first baseman Sean O’Brien, putting runners on first and second with no outs. After a walk to Bobby Abreu loaded the bases, Alex Rodriguez lofted a sacrifice fly to right that put the Yankees on the board 1-0. Wells then got Jason Giambi to ground into a double play to thwart the potential Yankee rally. The Hokies rotated pitchers each inning, and Wells yielded one run off two walks, an error, and no hits in his lone inning on the mound. “I told the guys I felt like I had thrown two complete games and I had thrown 20 pitches to five hitters,” Wells said. “I was just going into it trying to prepare and being caught up in the moment, I was so physically and emotionally drained after one inning it was such a great relief. In the bottom of the first inning, Tech catcher Anthony Sosnoskie got the first hit of the game for the Hokies, stroking a two out single to left centerfield off Yankees’ starter Jeff Karstens. “I got to first base and there’s Shelley Duncan with this huge grin on his face, and that was pretty cool,” Sosnoskie said. “Then I looked out toward short and Jeter was smiling, so it was a real good experience. Once I hit it I knew it was a base hit that made it even better. It’ll always stay with me.” Karstens pitched four innings for the Yankees, giving up only two hits and getting two strike-
SHAOZHUO CUI/SPPS
Right handed pitcher Jeff Karstens started and ptiched four innings for the New York Yankees yesterday. Karstens gave up two hits and had two strikeouts.
MORE YANKEES ON THE WEB: Check out a photo gallery of the game on our Web site PHOTOS: To see even more photos in print, turn to page two INSIDE: Read more about yesterday’s game on page six outs. With two outs and a man on in the top of the second inning, Yankees’ centerfielder Melky Cabrera got New York’s first hit of the game with a double down the left field line. After a walk, Jeter hit a line drive off the glove of shortstop Ty Hohman that allowed a run to score . Back-to-back bases-loaded walks to Abreu and Rodriguez padded the Yankee lead to 4-0 before Giambi hit a towering fly ball to deep right field that was caught by Tech right fielder Steve Bumbry to end the rally. Yankees’ manager subbed out the top half of his starting lineup in the fourth inning, and the rest of his lineup the following inning. In the fourth inning, Tech’s Jose Cueto singled to right field for the Hokies’ second and final hit
of the game. In the seventh, Cueto made a diving catch down the right field line that robbed Wilson Betimit of a base hit. “I was laughing with some of the fans in right because it was such a loose game and it was one of the few chance I actually get to interact with the fans,” Cueto said. “I told them it’s something I’m not going to forget, some bragging rights in the locker room.” Tech pitcher Rob Waskiewicz went three up, three down against the Bronx Bombers in the third inning, and Brandon Fisher recorded backto-back strikeouts of Jason Lane and Morgan Ensberg to end the fourth. After being held scoreless for three innings, the Yankee bats awoke in the final innings. New York scored two runs in the sixth inning and then added five in the seventh to complete the scoring. Despite the final score, Tech head coach Pete Hughes was pleased overall with his team’s performance “I think we did a good job,” Hughes said. “The strike zone was a little out of whack, but we walked people and didn’t catch the ball a couple times and that hurt us. But if we didn’t walk people that’s probably a 5-0 game.” Added Hughes with a smile, “Maybe we’ll beat them next year.”
Like excited little kids, Virginia Tech baseball players intently watched their heroes take their hacks during the New York Yankees batting practice session. Similar to the fans in the stands, RYAN they, too, clamored for MCCONNELL autographs and a little bit of face time with the ct sports Major Leaguers. editor For Jose Cueto, the opportunity to meet a collection of All-Stars was a memorable experience, and the senior outfielder even shared common ground with arguably the greatest player in Major League Baseball. Cueto and Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez are both Miami natives, and Cueto attended Braddock High School COMMENT while Rodriguez attended Westminster Christian High School. “We were reminiscing about his high school and my high school because they used to play against each other a lot and actually don’t like each other,” Cueto said. “So it was pretty funny because he was telling me how my high school used to stink back then and I’m telling him how we used to beat his high school when I played.” Tech shortstop Ty Hohman found time to briefly talk with his New York counterpart Derek Jeter and came away starstruck after his meeting with the Yankee captain and future Hall of Famer. Especially in regard to Jeter’s deceptive height. “I looked at my picture afterwards and he’s about four or five inches taller than me. It doesn’t look like it out there but when you get to stand right there next to him you’re like ‘Holy Moly,’” Hohman said with a laugh. During the game, Tech catcher and lifelong Yankees fan Anthony Sosnoskie made conversation with nearly every New York player who entered the batter’s box. After telling Jeter to get the Yankees’ 27th World Series title, Sosnoskie wanted to hear from five-time All-Star catcher Jorge Posada. “I was trying to pick his brain about catching, trying to get tips. And he said ‘Later, later, I’ve got to try and hit now’, and he started laughing,” Sosnoskie said. With his young squad in the midst of an eight-game losing streak, Tech head coach Pete
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