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AG calls for necessary funding to end backlog of untested rape kits

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Carroll-Mitchell team shoots to top of John Allan Tournament leaderboard

<p>MOOSIC &#8212; When Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders co-managing owner David Abrams addressed the media Friday night, there were a multitude of topics he touched on during his 30-minute interview.</p><p>Everything from the Triple-A National Championship game to renovations at PNC Field to Friday&#8217;s Roger Clemens Night.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re having kind of the best year since we bought the team,&#8221; Abrams said. &#8220;We&#8217;re thrilled. Good support from the community. I think what we have from this date forward for this year is even better than previous years, just in the regular season with some of the promotional activities we have and based upon the pre-sales and how the community has supported us, we think we&#8217;re going to have the best second half of the year we&#8217;ve ever seen in northeast Pennsylvania.&#8221;</p><p>Abrams said Friday that his goal for the national championship game is to have at least 10,000 fans in the park.</p><p>With a few Philadelphia 76ers, Reggie Jackson, Bucky Dent and more expected to be on hand on Sept, 19, he expects it to be a spectacle. A memory that will last a lifetime.</p><p>Abrams, who announced he was diagnosed with cancer on Friday, said the game&#8217;s going to provide different opportunities to honor those battling the disease, like personalized messages on the scoreboard, and will be announcing a partnership &#8220;with an incredibly important organization in the cancer world&#8221; for the game in the coming days.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve seen some of the community, some of the people I normally interact with, and some of them know what&#8217;s going on and they text me and they call me, and it&#8217;s so uplifting,&#8221; Abrams said. &#8220;What I&#8217;m trying to do, in terms of giving back, is imagine providing that for other people by being here.&#8221;</p><p>Abrams also announced that the team will be replacing the field, which has been there for 10 years, making improvements to the Batter&#8217;s Eye Bar and Grill and installing WiFi throughout the entire park this offseason.</p><p><strong>Culver finding stroke</strong></p><p>RailRiders utility man Cito Culver his playing his best baseball of the season right now.</p><p>He&#8217;s making impressive plays in the field, all over the diamond, on a nightly basis, but he&#8217;s also on a torrid pace at the plate. Culver is batting .300 in his last 10 games.</p><p>And as a player not known for his power &#8212; Culver had 27 career home runs before this season &#8212; he has homered in back-to-back nights, pushing his season total to eight. Culver has already tied his career-high for one season, which was set in 2013 with Single-A Charleston.</p><p>&#8220;I feel good. I just try to stay ready,&#8221; Culver said. &#8220;We have a lot of guys here who have to play and I&#8217;m sort of the utility guy and I get to play a ton of positions when I get in there. I just try to stay ready and take my (batting practice sessions) into the game.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Spin rate helping pitchers</strong></p><p>While RailRiders starters Chance Adams and Caleb Smith don&#8217;t have stuff that will blow by you &#8212; each of their fastballs top out in the mid-to-low 90s &#8212; the way they throw the baseball makes it appear that the pitch is approaching the plate much faster than it actually is.</p><p>It&#8217;s all about the spin rate.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll give you the best example &#8212; (Tyler Webb). Obviously, he went up (Thursday), which is amazing, but Webby doesn&#8217;t throw exceptionally hard &#8212; 90, 92,&#8221; RailRiders catcher Eddy Rodriguez said. &#8220;We see lefties that do that up and down major league rosters, but Webby&#8217;s 92, any hitter you ask feels like 96, 97.</p><p>&#8220;I think more of baseball is realizing that elevated fastball with that high amount of spin rate produces a lot of punch outs. The game has gone to punch outs and homers and that&#8217;s just catching up with the times.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Culver </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/web1_Cito-Culver201762412512427.jpg</photo0><caption0>Culver </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By DJ Eberle</p><p>djeberle@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach DJ Eberle at 570-991-6398 or on Twitter @ByDJEberle</p></shirttailMeta></div>

RailRiders Weekend Notebook: Co-managing owner David Adrams address the state of the team