Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 19, 1993 TAG: 9307190088
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRIS BACHELDER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It started last Thursday night, when Bath County Eagles coach Mark Weiss got some bad news, a long-distance call from his longtime starting pitcher Ricky Fry, who was vacationing on a North Carolina beach.
Fry called Warm Springs to tell his coach he could start a 2 p.m. game Saturday in the Commonwealth Games of Virginia, but the team's 10 a.m. opener was out of the question. It seems Fry had an eight-hour drive home to Millboro on Friday and he still had to finish several hours of paperwork at The Homestead resort, where he is in charge of transportation services.
But somewhere on the long, hot road home, Fry, one of three original players remaining from a Bath County team formed 20 years ago, changed his mind.
He got home at about 5 p.m., quickly unpacked his suitcases - "He never unpacks his suitcases," said his wife, Sharon - and went to work at 6 until he finished his business at 11.
He made the 10 a.m. tournament opener, and then he and his teammates made history.
Pitching his first game in 17 days, Fry lobbed a no-hitter in the Eagles' 10-0 win over B&L Processing of Martinsville at Arnold Burton Vocational School.
The feat is so rare in slow-pitch softball that the United States Slo-Pitch Softball Association lists in its yearly rule book every no-hitter thrown in a USSSA-sanctioned game in the 22-year history of the organization.
According to the USSSA, Fry's no-hitter was the 106th thrown in the country in a men's game since 1971. There were none recorded in 1973 or 1975, and there was only one, in New Egypt, N.J., in 1992.
Fry is the sixth pitcher in Virginia to throw a no-hitter, and the first since Jeff Adams of Hopewell pulled it off on Nov. 4, 1987.
"I've been playing 20 years and it's the first no-hitter I've ever seen," said Fry, who will turn 39 next month. "I've heard tell of them, but I've never seen one or been involved with one, not even in a pick-up game or a church league.
"But it was just meant to be. I mean, slow-pitch is a hitter's game. I just pitched the balls and my teammates made great plays behind me.
"It was definitely in the back of my mind. And after about the third inning, nobody said a word about it."
Incredibly, Fry faced just 22 batters in the seven-inning contest. In the fourth inning, Eagles' third baseman Buggs Phillips preserved the no-hitter with a diving stop, but then snapped the perfect game with an errant throw to first base from his knees.
"Even the umpire said I had time to get up and throw," Phillips said.
Phillips, shortstop Brian Porterfield and right center fielder Kendall Gunter made top-notch defensive plays to save the no-hitter. With none out in the top of the seventh, Gunter made a diving catch to snare a line drive.
"Right off the bat, I thought for sure that was a hit," Fry said. "I just gave a big sigh because I thought the no-hitter was over."
"There were about six plays in the game where somebody made a big dive - not just a routine play," said Phillips, another of the original players on the team, which is now sponsored by Mike's Wrecker Service and Phillips' Insurance. "They had six hits that were taken away."
Fry also fielded several balls to help his own cause. Weiss called Fry the "best defensive pitcher around," and said the slim hurler once recorded eight straight outs in a game.
Fry said you could see the frustration mounting on the faces of the Martinsville players (who, incidentally, clubbed their way to 22 runs in a Saturday afternoon game).
"About the fifth inning, their coach walked out and handed me a new ball," Fry said. "He said, `You're doing a fairly nice job of pitching, but I think it's the ball.' "
Fry, a humble man and a team player, said his career highlight is not the no-hitter, but the CMT tournament championship the Eagles earned earlier this month.
By Sunday, word of the extraordinary event had spread throughout the softball venues, and Eagle players were tempering their praise and respect for Fry with some serious razzing.
"I've already got three or four autographs," Phillips said.
by CNB