BY MERLE MONAHAN/CONTRIBUTING WRITER
merlemonah@aol.com

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y.—A former Ivor youth in July hit a home run at Cooperstown Dreams Park.

Playing with the Carolina Heat during an eight-day tournament, Ashton Felts and his team finished 17th out of 104 teams. When the competition began, the 13-year-old’s team was seeded 47th.

A pitcher and second baseman, Felts got his name embossed on the home run ball.

“He loves baseball,” said his mother Stephanie Lawrence of San Diego, noting he started playing T-ball when he was 4.

“I’m very proud of him,” Lawrence added. “He has a passion for the game and has shown that he has talent.”

Also the son of Ashton Felts III of Chesapeake, the youth lived in Berlin until he was 5 and moved to Elizabeth City, N.C. Upon returning home from Cooperstown, his family moved to California, where his stepfather, Ryan Lawrence, will be stationed with the Navy.

Ashton’s team played nine games during the competition. Three games were shown live on the Internet.

“We watched him hit the homerun,” Lawrence said. “It was great.”

Felts takes his mother’s comments in stride, yet is pleased to have his homerun baseball. He will add it to his other mementos of the games, including dozens of pins from other teams.

He has one other memory of the trip. He and his team stayed in the quarters named after Catfish Hunter, one of his favorite baseball players.

Felts is the grandson of Gayle and Marvin Lanier of Wakefield; Bobby and Trish Crumpler and Mert and Jean Felts, all of Ivor; and the great-grandson of Louise T. Felts of Ivor.

He has a sister, Cayla Felts, 15, and a brother, Tyler Lawrence, 5.