THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 28, 1995 TAG: 9504280614
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICH RADFORD, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines
Chris Elmore is expecting an unusually large number of people for his 18th birthday party today. So many that he's moved the big bash to Plaza Little League's baseball complex.
Well, that's just a half-truth. Green Run High's ace senior lefthander would be there even if it wasn't his birthday.
In a scheduling fluke, First Colonial and Green Run, the area's top-ranked teams, meet just once during this regular season, today at 4 p.m.
And it's at Green Run's home field.
Elmore said he couldn't believe it when the Beach District baseball schedule was announced and the biggest game of the year fell on his birthday.
``As soon as I saw the date, I knew I had the ball,'' said Elmore, unbeaten as a high school pitcher. ``I would have skipped pitching for two weeks if I could have the ball on my birthday. By playing them only once, we know this could be the decisive game, the backbone of the season. Someone else could come up and beat both of us. But . . . ''
So far, it hasn't happened. Not to No. 1-ranked First Colonial (11-0). Not to No. 2 Green Run (10-0).
Elmore, at 6-foot-1, 170 pounds, is 11-0 as a Stallion. Last year, Elmore was 7-0 with a 2.10 earned run average. This season, he's 4-0 with a 0.26 ERA. He's thrown a two-hitter and three one-hitters.
Ask Elmore to describe his arsenal and he runs down his pitches like a shopping list: ``Mid-80s fastball, decent changeup . . . ''
Then he smiles: ``And a curve ball that drops off the table.''
The curve is the main reason the University of North Carolina signed Elmore in November.
``I haven't seen any curve balls like that at this level,'' said first-year Green Run head coach Jeff Ballance. ``It's a college-level curve ball. It's just so sharp. And he has the confidence to throw it even when the count is 3-0.''
When Elmore talks about his curve ball, it's like a thoroughbred trainer discussing his Kentucky Derby entry.
``I have always been fascinated with the curve ball,'' Elmore said. ``Everybody tells you not to throw a curve ball when you're young, that it'll damage your arm. But I started throwing it when I was 11. And I had a decent one then.''
Elmore is so enamored with the curve that he wrote his physics term paper on its cause and effect. When his teacher, Gregory MacDougall, suggested the idea, Elmore jumped, with grade-A results.
``There's so much out there in the field of physics that I'm always trying to merge something that they like,'' MacDougall said. ``And if Chris got an A on it, you can believe his paper was good.''
For his research, Elmore set up three cameras in the Green Run gymnasium and filmed himself throwing the curve ball.
``We measured the margin of when the ball breaks and its movement,'' Elmore said. ``There's a lot of aerodynamics involved. You've got air pressure on the ball forcing it down. It was complicated stuff. But it was great to learn the way things work.''
Elmore wasn't always so intrigued by his pitching. He remembers being a 10-year-old and having one of his coaches ``telling me I had to be a pitcher because lefthanders get so much movement on the ball. He was stressing mechanics and all that stuff.
``But back then I was like a second-grader in a calculus class. What did I care about where my legs were? I just wanted to get the ball across the plate.''
Elmore praises former Green Run coach Gary Spedden as the coach who taught him the most about pitching. Spedden coached Elmore as a sophomore and junior before leaving to start the baseball program at Ocean Lakes High this season.
When Ballance took over, one of the first things he did was line up Mike Mungin as an assistant coach. Mungin pitched in the Oakland A's minor league organization before arm troubles ended his career.
``Mike's been more important to me mentally than physically,'' Elmore said. ``If I've got a no-hitter going into the seventh inning and somebody gets a Texas Leaguer hit over shortstop, Mike will tell me it doesn't count and then tell me to stay in it and finish the game.''
Elmore won't go into today's game against hard-hitting First Colonial with any preconceived notions of throwing a no-hitter. A win, in any manner, will be acceptable.
``Since it's his birthday, we'll probably do something for him at the game,'' Ballance said. ``But we're hoping he comes through with his own birthday present.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
MOTOYA NAKAMURA/Staff
Green Run's Chris Elmore has never lost a high school game. The
curveball specialist is 4-0 this season with a 0.26 earned-run
average.
by CNB