BASEBALL: Two former local athletes matched up against each other recently in the professional baseball New York/Penn League.

Former Liberty-Eylau all-stater Will Middlebrooks was the starter at third base for the Lowell (Mass.) Spinners (Boston Red Sox) and faced former Texarkana College standout Kirkland Rivers of the Tri-City ValleyCats (Houston Astros).

Rivers, who pitched sparingly for the Bulldogs before going on to pitch for Texas A&M, struck Middlebrooks out while throwing two scoreless innings in his professional debut.

Middlebrooks finished 0-3 in ...