The Roanoke Badgers 14U traveling baseball team recently won the National Tournament held at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina July 6-12.

The team includes two players from Salem: Nic Ratliff and Chad Fisher.

"This group of kids have been together since they were nine years old. We picked up several players since then, but most of them have been together since a very young age," Rich Epperly, manager of the team, said.

The Roanoke Badgers played in the national tournament against other traveling teams from Ohio, and Virginia. There are 12 boys on the team and they travel to Charlotte, Greensboro, Tidewater, Newport News and Richmond.

Since fall 2005, the Roanoke Badgers 14U traveling team has had 156 wins and only 42 losses. They've won 22 championships and 26 tournaments since fall 2005.

"That's pretty good," Epperly said.

-- Emily Flora