Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 18, 1994 TAG: 9406180035
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VICTORIA LENGTH: Medium
Friday, his playing associates picked him up.
With huge contributions from No. 9 hitter Sparky Atkinson and late-inning substitute Brendan Kassebaum to go along with Anderson's occasionally struggling but courageous pitching, Glenvar came from behind to beat host Central of Lunenburg 5-4 and claim its first Group A state baseball championship. The Highlanders won their last 19 games.
After a dispiriting four-run rally by the Chargers (23-5) in the third, Atkinson tied the score in the top of the fourth with a one-out home run, his first of the year. Then Kassebaum, who had come in as a defensive replacement in left field in the fifth, put the Highlanders up for good with a run-scoring single in his first at-bat in five games.
Then it was up to Anderson, the tiring left-hander, and the defense.
As was their custom, the Highlanders made for imperfect but riveting entertainment. The season came down to the seventh and the potent top of Central's order. An error by Atkinson on a ball off the bat of Cory Whitby got it started. Then Anderson hurled a called third strike past Sidney Chappell for the southpaw's 10th whiff of the game.
Whitby then took a notion to steal second base.
"I told him to take off if he got a good lead and it looked OK," Central coach Reggie Dunnavant said. "He didn't get a good lead, but he took off anyway."
Catcher Joey Hutton thought he might.
"It was in the back of mind," Hutton said. "The throw was all adrenaline."
Hutton's toss was also all right. Whitby was history.
"That may have been the play of the game right there," Glenvar coach Larry Wood said.
Indeed. Roger Gayles, who had gone 2-for-2 with a double and two RBI, walked. Then Mike Arthur punched a ball to right that certainly would have scored a run from second had there only been a runner there.
The Highlanders (23-2-1) didn't have their mitts on the prize yet, though. There was a runner at third. Robert Seward, the batter, was the Chargers' last chance. It also may have been Anderson's last chance after pitching in his 14th heat and humidity soaked inning in four days.
"I was tired in the second inning," he said. "I was tired before I started."
Seward socked the ball up the middle where it took a wicked hop on Tim Carroll at second. Carroll barely nicked the ball with his glove. As providence would have it, the ball caromed straight to shortstop Eric East, who touched the bag for the force and set off the celebratory melee.
"I guess they were destined to win," Dunnavant said.
After a traumatizing loss last year in the title game, nobody for Glenvar was thinking of destiny unless it was the wrong kind.
That was particularly true after the Chargers had vaporized a 3-0 deficit in their very next at bat in the third. Central had three hits and a walk, but only one of the runs was earned courtesy of two Glenvar errors.
"I was thinking shades of last year," Wood said.
Anderson, whose wild pitch scored one of the runs, was clearly depressed when that frame was over. To the rescue came Atkinson, who lofted a 1-1 pitch over the 10-foot fence in left.
"I hit it off the end of the bat," he said. "I didn't think it would go." Added Hutton: "That picked us up; that picked Jason up."
Anderson didn't have his best stuff, witness three walks and the wild pitch. But he battled just the same.
"That shows you the kind of heart he has," Hutton said.
Certainly no more than Kassebaum, who took his turn at the plate with one out and Andy Shelor on second (running for Rob Robinson, who had singled) in the sixth. Kassebaum produced on a one-ball count.
"I was a little nervous," he said. "But not as nervous as I should have been."
Whitby, a curveballer, had good stuff, but Glenvar had 10 hits off him, two each by David Henderson (who also drove in a run), East (with two RBI),and Atkinson (three times on base, two hits, two runs scored).
"I told Jason before the game I'd hit him a home run," Atkinson said. "That one was for him."
Actually, it was for them all. Glenvar 0031010-5103 Central 0040000-441
Anderson and Hutton. Whitby and Phillips. W-Anderson (12-1). L-Whitby (9-4). HR-Atkinson (G), 4th, none on.
by CNB