Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 14, 1993 TAG: 9304140025
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-15 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
IT FIT THE WINNING SCRIPT, ALL RIGHT, BUT RALLIES CHANGED THE ENDING
Virginia Tech's baseball series with Tulane last weekend reminded the Hokies that teams can't trust their strengths all the time.The teams' doubleheader Saturday fit the Hokies' 1993 winning script perfectly, but had a different ending:
Tech didn't win.
Late-game rallies by the Green Wave helped Tulane sweep the Hokies in a Metro Conference series and dented a Hokie bull pen that had been almost untouchable in the first 1 1/2 months of the season.
Before the Tulane series, Tech had won all 15 games in which it was ahead or tied after seven innings (after five innings in seven-inning games), and the Hokies had won four games in which they'd trailed at that stage.
In the Green Wave's Game 1 win Saturday, the bull pen allowed an inherited runner to score, then allowed two more in; in Game 2, Tulane broke a tie against Tech's relievers.
"We didn't play tough," Tech coach Chuck Hartman said, noting that Tech pitchers had 19 walks in 22 innings.
"Our bull pen has been our real secret all year. We didn't throw strikes and didn't get people out."
Tech's offense could have made things better.
But in Game 1, for example, Tech got runners to third with one out three times and didn't drive them in.
"I was just disappointed in our aggressiveness," Hartman said.
Not that all is lost.
The Hokies were 19-7 entering Tuesday's game at Appalachian State, and Hartman has said repeatedly that this team is more like a "family" than his teams of recent years.
That might help Tech avoid the second-half stumbles that have plagued it in the past few seasons.
In 1988 Tech was 25-9, but went 15-11 the rest of the way; in '89, it was 27-10, but finished 8-12; in '90, 28-8 and 8-14; in '91, 12-7 and 12-23; last year, 22-2-1 and 12-15.
Part of that is rooted in scheduling. In '91, for example, seven of Tech's last 10 games were on the road, not counting the Metro Tournament. In '92, Tech finished the season with a game at Virginia Commonwealth, a game at Richmond and three at Southern Mississippi.
The early schedule is a factor, too, Hartman said.
"Last year, our schedule was probably not as strong as it was this year early in the season," he said.
"We've got some quality wins [such as South Carolina and Old Dominion]. [This] schedule looks like we ought to finish strong."
Tech was scheduled to end the season with seven straight home games and eight of its last nine at English Field.
At least one weather-postponed game has been rescheduled (James Madison for April 11), and Hartman said Tech may reschedule an ODU game for May 12. That would give the Hokies nine in a row at home to end the season.
"Let's see what does happen," Hartman said.
\ UPDATES: Tech's women's tennis team recently was hammered by 17th-ranked Virginia (6-0) and Metro Conference foe VCU (8-1), but coach Anne Jones noted that Tech players lost four tie-break sets and said Tech had made strides since losing 9-0 to VCU in February.
. . . Distance runners continue to lead Tech's track efforts. At the Colonial Relays April 2-3, Tom Lankowicz won the men's open 10,000 meters and Adam Small was fourth; Ben Hester was third in the men's open 3,000-meter steeplechase; Travis Walter was third in the men's open 5,000 meters, and Marshall Ferguson was second in the college men's 1,500 meters.
. . . The women's track coach, Lori Taylor, set the pace for her athletes by finished third in the women's open 5,000 meters, ahead of Heidi Allen (sixth) and Kara Kaufman (ninth).
\ UPCOMING IN BLACKSBURG: Baseball - Marshall, 3 p.m. April 15; UNC Charlotte, 3 p.m. April 16, 2 p.m. April 17 and 2 p.m. April 18; Liberty, 3 p.m. April 27; Men's and women's tennis - Metro Conference championship, April 16-18. First matches 8 a.m. April 16.
Scott Blanchard is a Roanoke Times & World-News sportswriter.