ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, May 30, 1996 TAG: 9605300092
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
Comparisons between Wednesday's Northwest Region baseball game involving Franklin County and Heritage were limited to the identities of the participating players and coaches.
The Pioneers avenged two hideous, ghastly and utterly distasteful defeats to the host Eagles with a splendidly played 2-1 victory that stopped a 17-game Franklin County winning streak.
The Pioneers (16-5) advance to a Friday clash with the winner of a Gar-Field vs. Stonewall Jackson game that has yet to be played. The Eagles (19-2) finish with a school record for victories and a hollow feeling.
``There's nothing you can say to them but they had a great year,'' said F.L. Slough, Franklin County's coach.
Heritage is having a great year now. It wasn't after the first couple of times it tangled with Franklin County early in the campaign. The Eagles impaled the Pioneers 9-0 and 15-3.
``We didn't let the players get overconfident this week,'' Slough said. ``We knew we were going to have to play baseball. The hard job belonged to [Heritage coach] Dennis Knight. He had to convince his players they could play with us.''
Knight did so by evoking painful memories.
``I didn't want to talk to them this week about the scores in those games,'' he said. ``What we talked about was the nine walks, the seven errors, the four wild pitches and the 17 men left on base we had in those two games.''
The numbers this time around read seven stranded, one wild pitch, one walk and zero errors.
One of the most soothing influences the Pioneers had was their own pitcher, goateed left-hander Shaun Woody. The 11th-grader hoodwinked the Eagles with a five-strikeout three-hitter.
In the second, Brian Strong had parlayed a leadoff ground rule double, a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly from Shaun Ferguson into a 1-0 Eagles lead. Heritage responded in the third with some station-to-station ball of its own. Kendall Shupe led off with a double, was wild pitched to second, was bunted over to third by Lewis Tardy, and was plated by Tim Martin's sacrifice fly.
Lewis Tardy came up with the game-winning hit in the top of the seventh, scoring Jimmy Ohl on an infield hit. Ohl was hit by a pitch, wild-pitched to second and sacrificed to third.
``I've had a lot on infield hits this year,'' Tardy said. ``I knew I had to go as hard as I could and lean at the end.''
LENGTH: Medium: 56 linesby CNB