Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 18, 1995 TAG: 9504180105
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Long
Radford University's baseball coaches are all over sophomore shortstop Kelly Dampeer.
Head coach Lew Kent and assistant Lind Hartsell are telling Dampeer he doesn't know what he's doing.
``If you'd just use the Easton bat instead of the TPX you'd be better off,'' Hartsell said.
The infielder offered his rebuttal.
''I can't use the Easton,'' Dampeer said. ``It's a slow bat.''
``Slow bat?'' Kent said. ``I guess it was a slow bat the day you hit three home runs against C.W. Post.''
Dampeer was unimpressed, apparently as much with Kent's logic as with C.W. Post's pitching.
``The cap kept flying off the end of that Easton bat,'' he said.
That's what happens occasionally when you hit a baseball as hard as Dampeer does. The 5-foot-11, 180-pounder had belted 14 home runs, a school record for a season, with 16 games still to play.
Kent, a first-year coach who caught professionally in the Cleveland Indians' chain and once played college ball with Barry Bonds, wasn't giving up.
``How many did you hit with the Easton?''
``Eight or nine,'' Dampeer said.
``See?'' Kent said.
``Why are you complaining about the TPX? That bat's been good for us.''
``You just like that burgundy color,'' Hartsell said. ``William Byrd burgundy.''
Ooh, now that hurts.
Everybody knows Dampeer is a former three-sport star (baseball, basketball and football) from Northside High School and was All-Timesland in baseball and football. Any Northside man worth his green and gold would rather drink a cod liver oil cocktail than speak well of Byrd burgundy and orange.
But Dampeer gets the last word, as well he should. Guys swinging the stick like he is can swing anything the umpire will let them drag to the batter's box .
``I really haven't felt like I'm swinging for home runs,'' he said. ``I'm up there for the most part waiting for the right pitch. If I'd been waiting for the right pitch all along, maybe I would have hit more home runs.''
Dampeer lashed five homers in 50 games as a freshman. Now he has 14 in 38.
But don't get the idea Dampeer has turned into the picture of discrimination at the plate. He only has 10 walks in 138 plate appearances. As far back as Northside, Dampeer had the reputation of one who took his place at the plate with the idea of getting his money's worth.
Still, Kent doesn't want anybody to reach any irresponsible conclusions.
``Kelly is not a home-run hitter. He's just a good hitter. He's strong and he has quick hands. When he gets extended, that ball just flies.''
Dampeer has been getting his money's worth when he's taken up the bat and the Highlanders, in return, have been getting solid value out of him. He leads the team with a .357 average, 46 runs batted in, 108 total bases, a .771 slugging percentage, and is second in hits (50) and doubles (14).
Although Radford has a relatively low profile by the standards of some NCAA Division I programs, Dampeer isn't exactly laboring in obscurity. Up the road at Virginia Tech, Hokies coach Chuck Hartman is well aware of Dampeer's heroics and not just because he swatted a three-run dinger in the Highlanders' recent 8-7 victory over Tech.
Hartman passed on Dampeer coming out of high school.
``I made a real bad recruiting mistake,'' he said. ``He's a heck of a college player.''
The main doubt Hartman said he had was whether Dampeer could play in the infield.
``I was wrong about that, too,'' Hartman said.
As if it might now be consolation to the veteran Tech boss, others shared Hartman's views on Dampeer when he was at Northside.
``Most of the people [recruiters] who talked to me said that they didn't feel like I could play in the infield,'' Dampeer said. ``I just wanted to play. I would have played in the outfield.''
By the time baseball recruiting rolled around, Dampeer was accustomed to being overlooked. Although he was a terrific football player and started two of three years in high school at quarterback and three years in the secondary, no Division I programs seemed to be interested.
``Beyond the height and weight sort of thing that got in his way, Kelly had the same skills and attributes that other players who were recruited had,'' said Jim Hickam, his high school football coach.
Dampeer knew that baseball was going to be his sport all along anyway.
``I played basketball because I like basketball,'' he said. ``I played football because it was something else to do. That, and I noticed in junior high that girls liked football players. So I suited up.''
Dampeer never hit more than six home runs in a season in high school although he did swat 10 during the American Legion summer between his senior year at Northside and first year at Radford.
``We're right for Kelly at Radford and Kelly's right for us,'' Kent said. ``When he leaves here, he'll go play in the big leagues.''
One of the big breakthroughs in Dampeer's baseball education came last summer when he played for Front Royal in the Valley League, a summer circuit for college players. Such leagues mirror the professional minors in some respects, one being the use of wooden bats.
``When you use the wooden bat, you have to go with the pitch,'' he said. ``You don't get any cheap hits like you do with the aluminum bat.''
The way Dampeer has been hitting them lately, it's difficult to claim many of them are cheap.
by CNB