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The Backyard Brawl, that third-year Christiansburg summer basketball tournament pitting high school teams from both sides of the West Virginia border against one another, has been pronounced a rousing success and a great deal of fun.

Truth be told, though, that view may depend on which side of the state line you observed last weekend's events from.

Nineteen teams from Virginia battled the same number from West Virginia, with each team being guaranteed five games for the weekend. The ballers from the Mountain State got the best of it.

"The West Virginia teams won more than the Virginia ones," tournament impresario Kevin Stoner said.

It was a tough field, to be sure. After a panel of coaches from each state seeded the teams, two-time defending West Virginia AA champion Wyoming East didn't even make it into the top five.

That distinction went to South Charleston, Hedgesville, George Washington, Logan and Robert C. Byrd, all of which are AAA.

Matched up against those powerhouses were William Fleming, Blacksburg, Bassett, Martinsville and Cave Spring. Each played all five of its counterparts from the other state, two games Friday and three Saturday.

Stoner reckoned the seedings were right on the money.

"We didn't have many blowouts," he said.

In all, an estimated 300 players participated, filling who knows how many hotel rooms and patronizing local restaurants.

"That's a lot of economic impact for this area," Stoner said.

The athletic impact wasn't bad, either.

"I think there were at least 11 Division I prospects there," he said. "There were 16 college coaches here to see them."

Games were played at Christiansburg Recreation Center and Auburn High.

"Everybody was bragging about the rec center," Stoner said. "Everything went smoothly."

Speaking of smooth, rising Pulaski County High junior Amber Church is coming off a recent victory in the Emerging Elite Division of the Nike Outdoor Nationals.

Church, one of the top hurdlers in Timesland as a sophomore, clocked a winning 14.74 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles. The time was the best for a girl in Virginia this year and, of course, a personal best for Church.

The meet was held in Greensboro, N.C.

"Her race was poetry," her coach, John Cochran, wrote in an e-mail.

Poetic has rarely been a word applied to American Legion baseball, but several veteran observers of the league in which the New River Valley team is competing have tagged Coach Danny Evan's bunch as the team to beat this year.

"Top to bottom, they're stronger than anybody," one said.

On baseball's play-for-pay front, be reminded that the Pulaski Mariners play host to the Princeton Rays for a holiday tilt today at the unusual time of 4 p.m. It is the only game at that time all year.

Looking ahead: Christiansburg will play host to Dixie Youth Baseball's O Zone state tournament starting July 11.