Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 22, 1990 TAG: 9004220075
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Chris Williams, a senior who turned down Division I football offers to pursue a college baseball scholarship, was batting .630 (17-of-27) with two home runs, 21 runs batted in, 16 runs scored, 22 steals and nine walks in nine games.
"Chris told me yesterday that he thought he was having an off year," Bath County coach Richard McElwee said last week.
Timmy Williams, a junior, is having the best season of his high school baseball career. He is batting .476 (10-of-21) with 28 steals, 23 runs and 11 walks in eight games.
Apparently, Chris Williams will achieve his goal of playing college baseball. Among the schools that have offered scholarships, Virginia Tech, James Madison, Virginia and Richmond seem to intrigue him most, McElwee said. He is expected to announce his decision in the next couple of weeks.
Before Friday's 6-3 Pioneer District victory over Covington, the once-beaten Chargers were getting help from a number of players, particularly right-hander Keswick Phillips (.385, six home runs among his 10 hits, 17 RBI, 5-0, 2.97 ERA), John Loan (.462, three HR) and Jamie Lowry (.407).
Bassett High continues to get a lot of mileage out of Maurice DeShazo, an All-Timesland quarterback bound for Virginia Tech in the fall.
Despite a broken right (throwing) wrist, DeShazo is participating in five track and field events: the 100 and 200 meters and the long jump, high jump and triple jump. He has been clocked in 11.3 seconds in the 100 (career best, 11.1) and 22.7 in the 200 (career best, 22.4).
In the long jump, an event in which he has virtually no experience, DeShazo has gone 19 feet, 8 inches. At the start of last week, he had not triple-jumped in competition, but he has gone over 40 feet in practice and is expected to start participating in that event regularly. Also this year, he's high-jumped 5-8, 2 inches off his best.
Bassett, which is expected to contend for the team title in the tough Group AA Piedmont District, also has a couple of fine sprinters in 6-foot-2, 185-pound senior Eric Wimbush and sophomore Brian Burnette. Those two and DeShazo have posted times within tenths of a second of each other this season in the 100 and 200.
The search for a football coach at Alleghany has come down to four finalists, and a decision is expected within the next two weeks, said Randolph Scott, the school's principal. It is believed there were five finalists before Greenbrier (W.Va.) East coach Homer Criddle turned down the job.
Right-handers Sandy Duffy and Brad Gauldin recently tossed back-to-back no-hitters for Tunstall. Duffy beat Martinsville 3-0 and Gauldin stopped Laurel Park 6-0. . . . After losing its first two baseball games, Narrows has won six straight. The streak hasn't been going to anybody's head. "I'd say we've been pretty lucky," said Rick Franklin, the Green Wave's coach.
When Auburn upset Fort Chiswell 7-6 last week, it was the Eagles' second victory of the season, doubling their total from the previous season. . . . Jim Cutler's teams have won 343 baseball games in 30 years at Liberty. That is the most of any active coach in the state. Second on the list is Mack Shupe of defending Group A champion J.J. Kelly, who entered the season with 321 victories. . . . In Cutler's tenure at Liberty, only two of his players have hit .500: Eddie Hiner and J.C. Cousart. This year, three Minutemen are hitting better than .500: outfielders Mike Dooley (.556, 13 RBI) and Mike Norton (.542) and first baseman Ricky Baldwin (.500). Dooley, a sophomore, went 5-for-5 in a recent game against Jefferson Forest. . . . Blacksburg first baseman Mark Mathena is hitting .388 (7-of-18) with two home runs and seven RBI. This is the senior's first year of varsity baseball. . . . Christiansburg's 7-3 loss to Pulaski County last week snapped a six-game winning streak.
Pulaski County's pitching was put to the test this week with games Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. More brutal scheduling: Craig County has three doubleheaders (unusual for a Timesland baseball team) left on its schedule. They are April 26 at Rockbridge, May 7 vs. James River and May 9 at Parry McCluer. Wonder what the Rockets' pitching staff is going to look like after that?
Grayson County catcher Mack Cassell is paying an official recruiting visit to North Carolina-Charlotte this weekend and may sign, according to Blue Devils coach Ed Goodson. Cassell is hitting third in the Blue Devils' lineup, where he has seen few good pitches to hit. He has raised his average to .250 after a 2-for-11 start, including 12 walks. That's been all the better for cleanup batter Devin Floyd, who's hitting .500 with four homers and 15 RBI.
by CNB