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It’s funny how things work out in life. Just a few years ago, Laura Hopper Ray was a star softball pitcher for East Rutherford, then went to North Greenville College to get an education and pitch there as well.
Laura never made it to the state championship as a player, but she could make it there soon as a coach.
In her first year as the softball coach at East Rutherford, Laura Hopper Ray has led her alma-mater into the Western Regionals after beating West Lincoln and then Madison at home last week.
They are just four wins away from a state title if they can beat two more teams twice. East Rutherford (22-2) hosted Forbush (21-4) on Tuesday, they go to Forbush on Thursday (5/29) and if a deciding game three, it will be at East on Saturday (5/31).
“It’s an awesome feeling to have this happen on the field I played on and on a team I played for in high school,” Laura Hopper Ray said. “It’s all about production, these girls don’t question what is asked of them. It’s incredible to see that. “
So far, they have been fundamentally sound on defense, have solid pitching and manufacture runs when needed. When a team can do a lot of right, usually winning follows. They have won 21 games in a row.
Meanwhile, at the Charlotte Motor Speedway this past week, the Rutherford Weekly was able to catch up with Forest City based Means Motorsports and driver Joey Gase.
After Charlotte, Gase is 19th in the driver points and Means Motorsports in 27th in owners points in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.
Gase got involved with Means Motorsports with the help of a former Means Motorsports driver Tim Schendel. A fellow Midwestern driver himself, Schendel introduced the two and since the tenth race of the 2012 season, his allegiance has been with the Forest City, NC based team.
When asked about driving for Jimmy Means, Gase seems to be learning a lot about NASCAR.
“It’s been good. Everybody in the garage respects Jimmy. We are probably the smallest team that gets the most out of a small budget. It’s amazing in what we have done so far this year. We keep picking up sponsors as the year progresses.”
After Charlotte, Gase is 19th in the driver points and Means Motorsports in 27th in owners points.
Just a couple of weeks back, Gase and Means got their best finish of the year and 11th at Talladega.
“It was a crazy race” Gase said. “There were three close calls that day and ended up being the sandwich in one of those wrecks. We were able to take the baseball bat to both sides of the car and stay on the lead lap. At the end, we were like the little engine that could, the car was pushing steam and water out and it blew up coming to the checkered flag. Fortunately, we’re able to finish and it was awesome day with a best career Nationwide finish.”
There’s also a lot to be said for the 21-year old from Iowa about bringing awareness on the No.52 Toyota most week’s and that’s Donatelife.com. Gase, whose mom (Mary Jo) passed away suddenly from a brain aneurysm three years ago has a simple message on the topic.
“It is close to my heart. Gase said. “The doctor’s asked if she wanted to be an organ donor and we had never really talked a lot about it. We were in such a rush to get to the hospital and her driver’s license was at home. So, we (Joey and his younger sister) quickly thought about it and decided that we wanted her to be an organ donor since she liked to help people. When we found her license, she had declared herself an organ donor and it does help us to get through her passing, knowing that she is living through other people.”
Gase went onto say that it’s a quick question to answer at the DMV about organ donation. There are over 120,000 people on the wait list for an organ and that number is growing. Gase’s mom has went onto help over 50 people so far in the organ donation process.
