ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, May 17, 1996 TAG: 9605170040
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-11 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
TYPE: COMMENTARY
SOURCE: RAY COX
Perhaps you were unaware:
Chris Hutchison, a baseball player from Giles High, inadvertently came up with an expensive way to go on a hitting streak.
One day recently, the Spartans had a game with Christiansburg rained out and the team repaired to the gymnasium to work in the batting cage. After practice, the players had been dismissed and coach Bruce Frazier was on his way out of the high school parking lot to go home.
At that point, Frazier noticed Hutchison making haste toward the tennis courts. Thinking that something could be amiss, Frazier turned his car around to see what was the matter.
``Now, I wish to heck I hadn't come back,'' Frazier said.
By the time Frazier returned to the area in which he'd last seen Hutchison, the player had climbed into his own car and started off.
Right away, Frazier could tell Hutchison wasn't watching what he was doing. The coach stopped. Hutchison, coming in the opposite direction, did not.
In an instant, Hutchison plowed head-on into Frazier's car.
Hutchison wasn't going very fast, which helped keep the potential repair bill to a limit somewhat short of the national debt. He did smack the windshield with his head, but with minimal damage.
To his head.
``We always knew that his head was of that durability,'' said Frazier, who unlike his car, was uninjured.
While the insurance companies sorted out the mess, Hutchison went on a baseball tear. In the two games after the wreck, both of which Giles won, Hutchison went 6-for-8 with two home runs, two doubles and four runs batted in.
MOVING ON: Bryan Pruett, the Narrows High basketball star, intends to walk on the team at Radford University next fall.
Pruett had been offered a scholarship contingent on a commitment during the early signing period, but had turned down the offer. Hargrave Military then became a possibility for a postgraduate year. Pruett decided against that and opted to walk on at Radford.
Pruett, who is 6-foot-2, played all the positions for the Green Wave but was most often seen at shooting guard. He averaged 18 points and seven rebounds per game.
All through the process, Pruett was being advised by his uncle Mike Burton, a former Narrows star who had also gone on to play at Radford.
``Bryan's versatility is what will make him good college player, I think,'' Narrows coach Todd Lusk said.
Pruett is expected to be redshirted, Lusk said.
SOFT HAND: Billy Wells may spend more time teaching his players at Shawsville High the finer points of baseball than he does playing the game himself, but he has still apparently has retained some skills from his playing days at Longwood College.
At a recent Salem Avalanche game, Wells was spotted catching a foul ball one-handed from his seat behind the backstop.
UNARMED: Also at Narrows, the baseball team has been keeping its statisticians hopping.
The Green Wave has three players who have been creaming the ball this season. Jason McCroskey was hitting .533 with 24 hits and 24 runs batted in. Joe Shipbaugh is hitting .462 with 18 hits. Dallas St. Clair has 17 hits and is batting .415.
The best part of the whole deal for first-year head coach Ed Shannon is that both McCroskey and St. Clair are 10th graders.
``There are some sizzling sophomores for you,'' Shannon said.
So how come Narrows started the week 5-13?
``We've got kids who can swing the bats, we just can't get anybody out,'' Shannon said. ``We don't have any pitching.''
Narrows has scored a ton of runs, but has lost too many games in which the combined score of the Green Wave and its opponent is over 20.
``When you can't throw strikes, that hurts,'' Shannon said.
LENGTH: Medium: 75 linesby CNB