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Play ball! — Stuart Field opens season

by | Apr 10, 2025

A member of the Rappahannock Bananas enjoying a sandwich before Saturday's games. (Photo/Ireland Hayes)
Gary Settle prepares to throw the first pitch. (Photo/Ireland Hayes)
hands holding a white baseball
Gary Settle spins the ball in his hands before throwing the first pitch. (Photo/Ireland Hayes)
A Bananas player enjoys a sandwich ahead of Saturday's games. (Photo/Ireland Hayes)
Gary Settle, retired head of Virginia State Police and Piedmont District Supervisor candidate, throws the first pitch. (Photo/Ireland Hayes)
A Rappahannock Blue Rocks player pitches a ball. (Photo/Ireland Hayes)
Settle hugs his great nephew, Alex Stoler, who caught his pitch. (Photo/Ireland Hayes)
Young spectators watch the games.
Young spectators watch the games. (Photo/Ireland Hayes)

The Rappahannock-Culpeper Baseball League held its opening ceremony for the start of the season last Saturday, with Gary Settle throwing the honorary first pitch at Stuart Field in Amissville. 

Settle, who recently retired as head of the Virginia State Police, is a Rappahannock native, longtime member of the Sperryville Volunteer Fire Department and candidate for the upcoming Piedmont District Supervisor seat.  

Receiving his pitch was Settle’s great nephew, Alex Stoler, a member of the Blue Rocks minor league division team. 

hands holding a white baseball

Gary Settle spins the ball in his hands before throwing the first pitch. (Photo/Ireland Hayes)

Before the games began, longtime president and coach Wayne Dodson introduced coaches, board members and teams participating this season, recognizing each player at center field. 

“I’m glad to have everybody here, I’m glad we have the turnout we do today. We’re ready to get this season started,” Dodson said over the loudspeaker. “Y’all ready to play some ball?”



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By Ireland Hayes

Read more articles by Ireland Hayes
Ireland joined Foothills Forum as a full-time reporter in 2023 after graduating from the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication with a degree in journalism and minor in music. As a student, she gained valuable experience in reporter and editor positions at The Red & Black, an award-winning student newspaper, and contributed to Grady Newsource and the Athens Banner-Herald. She spent three years as an editorial assistant at Georgia Magazine, UGA’s quarterly alumni publication, and interned with The Bitter Southerner. Growing up in a small town in Southeast Georgia, Ireland developed a deep appreciation for rural communities and the unique stories they have to tell. She completed undergraduate research on news deserts, ghost papers and the ways rural communities in Georgia are being forced to adapt to a lack of local news. This research further sparked her interest in a career contributing to the preservation of local and rural news.