Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 22, 1994 TAG: 9404220036
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-10 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By SCOTT BLANCHARD
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"For some reason, that hole . . . I just had a really bad feeling about it," the Virginia Tech golfer said of the fourth hole at Grenelefe Resort in Haines City, Fla., where Tech won the Metro Conference tournament last weekend.
Deal, Tech's stroke-average leader this year, whacked four consecutive drives out of bounds and took 12 shots to get away from the hole.
"A nightmare," he said.
While teammates such as Brian Sharp and Sean Farrell were shooting solid rounds, Deal was trying to recover. He said he knew there were plenty of holes he could birdie, but . . .
"First of all, I wanted to get a couple pars," he said. "Then I three-putted [No.] 7 for bogey."
But a birdie followed, then another on No. 10.
"That got things going in the right direction," he said.
He birdied seven of the last 14 holes, including five on the back nine, and finished with a respectable 2-over for the day to put a charge in Tech's effort.
"It was unbelievable," Tech coach Jay Hardwick said. "He just showed a tremendous amount of guts. That really spurred us on."
Deal, a redshirt freshman who transferred to Tech from Virginia, never forgot the tight fairway at No. 4.
"It's hard not to think about it," he said. "I knew what I had to do because of that. I tried not to think about, `What was I doing?' "
He wound up ninth overall, two shots behind Tech's low man, Sharp, and a stroke behind Farrell as Tech won its second straight Metro title.
The victory does not put Tech in the NCAA Tournament at Auburn, Ala., May 19-21, but it helps. Their next two tournaments - the Palmetto Intercollegiate Golf Classic Saturday and Sunday at Charleston, S.C., and the Cavalier Classic April 29-May 1 in Charlottesville - are "big ones," Hardwick said.
There are no automatic NCAA bids in golf. Eight teams are selected from regions across the country; Tech is in District 3 North, which Hardwick calls the strongest in the nation. In early May, each region's selection committee, comprised of three or four coaches, picks the NCAA entries.
Hardwick thinks Tech will be ranked in the top 10 in the region after the Metro victory, but he said the Hokies have to follow it up with strong outings at Charleston and Charlottesville.
"We have to play ourselves into a position where we don't have to depend on a vote," said Hardwick, who didn't miss a chance to remind his golfers of the National Invitation Tournament's snub of the basketball Hokies in March. "I told 'em, `You've got to look at what happened with our basketball team. It was left to a vote, and it didn't happen.' "
\ ON THE DIAMOND: Tech's hitting, pitching and fielding have solidified during a seven-game winning streak the Hokies took into Tuesday's game with James Madison. The Hokies hit .356 during the seven games, had a 3.30 earned-run average and a .974 fielding percentage, although the competition (Howard and Louisville were six of the seven games) was not imposing. Tech, which entered Tuesday's game 19-17 overall, had not been above the .500 mark this year until beating Louisville Saturday. On tap for Tech Friday-Sunday is Metro Conference leader South Florida.
Through Monday's games, shortstop Mike Terhune had committed one error in his last 17 games (66 chances) . . . Third baseman Bo Durkac, the Metro Conference's 1993 batting champion whose average did not dip below .400 last year, was below .300 at one point this year but has raised his average 72 points in the last 12 games and is hitting a team-high .343 . . . Catcher Denny Hedspeth missed four games with a sore ankle but returned last week and had three home runs and 11 RBI in a four-game stretch . . . Pitcher Brian Fitzgerald is 3-0 with a 1.96 ERA against Metro teams, and has walked three batters in 23 innings in conference play.
\ IN CLASS: Tech's 1993 Athletic Director's Honor Roll (at least a 3.0 grade-point average during the two semesters in calendar year 1993) included 128 athletes from sports other than football and men's basketball. The men's and women's swim teams, the men's track team and the women's soccer team each had 12 players qualify; men's soccer and men's and women's cross country each placed 11 on the honor roll. Nine baseball players made it; volleyball produced eight, wrestling seven, golf six, women's basketball and women's track five, women's tennis four and men's tennis three.
The '93-94 all-academic team (the top student-athlete from each sport): Ray Kaczmarek (baseball), Christi Osborne (women's basketball), Eric Parlette and Tara Byler (cross country), Mark McGuire (golf), Jon DeLong and Kim Campbell (soccer), Collins Trimble and Dana Fennessy (swimming), Scott Cuppett and Michele Hildebrand (tennis), Steve Koziol and Kari Manheimer (track), Amanda Yelsh (volleyball) and Jun Davis (wrestling).
\ UPCOMING IN BLACKSBURG: Baseball at English Field, Tech against West Virginia (2), 1 p.m. Wednesday, George Mason, 2 p.m. May 1.
by CNB