Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 8, 1993 TAG: 9304080587
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
HEDSPETH'S HOMER HELPS HOKIES HAMMER 'HOOS
There's a reason it's not Denny 'Hoo-dspeth.Virginia Tech sophomore catcher Denny Hedspeth whacked the Wahoos for the third time in his career Wednesday with an eighth-inning grand slam that closed the deal on the Hokies' 6-1 college baseball victory before an estimated 1,100 spectators at English Field.
Last year at English Field, Hedspeth's two-run, eighth-inning home run gave the Hokies a 6-4 victory. A week before that game, Hedspeth's grand slam highlighted a six-run seventh inning that put away UVa in a 12-3 Tech win.
"We're going to make him into a folk hero," Cavaliers coach Dennis Womack said. "They're going to remember him as the guy who kills Virginia."
Added Tech coach Chuck Hartman: "I've nicknamed him, ` 'Hoo-killer.' "
Well, now . . .
"The guys who beat Virginia are Virginia Tech," said Hedspeth, who has three homers this year. "We all do our jobs."
Freshman Scott Crim pitched 5 innings, allowing six hits and UVa's unearned run in the fourth inning. Junior reliever Mark Thompson, who joined the team last fall as a walk-on, got a groundout to end the sixth with two runners on, then finished for his second save.
Hartman pulled Crim with a one-ball count on UVa second baseman Chris Jones, but it wasn't a rash move. Thompson, 5-foot-9 and 155 pounds, walked one batter in 3 hitless innings. In 13 innings this year, he's allowed six hits, no runs and has walked one.
"I'm kind of small, so when they see me on the mound, they don't expect me to throw a lot of fastballs," Thompson said. "I do sneak a couple in occasionally."
Don Melroy had no such disguise. After Tech's J.R. Hawkins singled, B.J. Durkac doubled and Ken Nonamaker was intentionally walked, Melroy relieved for UVa and rolled a slider toward Hedspeth.
"He kind of hung it right in the zone," Hedspeth said.
It reversed course on a line over the left-field wall, pepping up the road-weary Hokies and deepening UVa's blues. Tech, which since April 1 has gone from Richmond to Cullowhee, N.C., to Blacksburg to Fairfax to Morgantown, W.Va., and back to Blacksburg, won for the third time in four games and is 18-4.
Virginia is 13-17.
Tech's lead in the all-time series increased to 64-57. The teams play again in Charlottesville on April 14 and at Municipal Field in Salem a week later.
Twice, Virginia left two runners on base when it was a 2-1 game.
"We're kind of in a little lull swinging the bat right now," Womack said.
Worse for UVa, starting pitcher Tom Crowley, who plays the field when he's not pitching, left the game after injuring his right leg making a turn at second base on a ball misplayed by Tech right fielder Hawkins. Womack said Crowley (team-leading .384 batting average, team-best 1.87 ERA entering the game) heard something in his leg pop and said Crowley will be X-rayed to make sure nothing is broken.
Hartman, meanwhile, is enjoying the spring. Production from unknown commodities like Thompson helps. Hartman, in fact, considered giving Thompson his first start on Wednesday but decided on the bus ride back from Morgantown on Tuesday night to start Crim, who was in the regular rotation.
The move looked fine Wednesday.
"When things are going right, they're going right," Hartman said. \
see microfilm for box score