Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 28, 1994                   TAG: 9404280183
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By RALPH BERRIER JR. STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SHAWSVILLE                                LENGTH: Medium

HE'D HIT 'EM OVER THE FENCE, BUT...

That's a serious poke.

A person could string together 25 Jose Canseco tape-measure shots and still not reach the wall at Shawsville. It's no wonder that Shawnee slugger Ben Basham had a big batting doughnut under the home run column until Tuesday, when he hit one out at Rocky Gap, far away from his home field.

The new baseball diamond up at the high school has a nice chain-link fence surrounding it, truth be told, over which many a home run may one day travel. Trouble is, the field won't be finished until next season.

That means Basham and the rest of the Shawsville baseball team have to head down the road and play on the elementary school field, where there's no outfield fence. This arrangement has put a hole in Basham's statistics where home runs should go. He hit three last year - when there was a fence at the elementary school - but won't hit that many this season unless he tags a couple more at opposing parks.

"I would've gotten a few more if there'd been a fence," he said. "I was looking forward to hitting some this year."

He's hitting some, all right. Maybe not a ton of home runs, but he is hitting a ton.

Before Tuesday's game, when he went 2-for-4, Basham was hitting .464. In four years on the varsity, Basham has a career batting average hovering near the .400 mark.

They don't say "Ben, bash 'em," for nothing.

"He hits it hard," said Shawsville coach Billy Wells. "He's hit at least three balls that would've gone out if we were playing anywhere else."

Basham plays hard, too, wringing about as much baseball ability out of his 5-foot-7 ("On a good day," he said), 165-pound frame as possible. He oozes scrappiness, the kind that made him a Region C wrestling champion last winter. He won the title at 171 pounds, about eight pounds more than he actually weighed.

He's always been undersized. That didn't stop him from earning second-team All-Mountain Empire District honors as a linebacker. It didn't stop him from being a first-team All-Region catcher last year.

Behind the dish, he may not look like much of a target to throw at, but rarely does a ball get by him. He may save a couple of runs per game simply because he blocks balls in the dirt, thereby not letting runners move up a base or two on wild pitches.

He made just one error last year and set a school record with his .990 fielding percentage.

"The main thing is his technique," said Wells. "He's worked hard on learning how to get his body in front of the ball."

Working behind the plate has also helped him when he stands at the plate. Since he calls many of the pitches that Shawsville hurlers throw, he knows what to look for from other pitchers.

"He refuses to go up there and swing at pitches he can't hit hard," said Wells. "He makes them throw the pitch down the middle."

That's why Basham makes more on-base appearances than Bob Hope. A thoroughly disciplined hitter, he takes walks regularly and strikes out about as often as he homers. He has fanned but twice this season, equalling his number of whiffs last year in 61 plate appearances.

"Being a catcher, I have an idea of where the [opposing] pitcher should be throwing," he said.

Being a hitter, he knows what gets other hitters out.

"I try to keep them off balance, [and] not let them know what's coming," he said. "I try to do to them what I don't like pitchers doing to me."

Basham also likes doing to catchers what he doesn't like having done to him. He's 19-for-20 on stolen base attempts the past two seasons. Since the Shawnees have played much of the season with a 10-man roster, Wells hasn't been able to use a courtesy runner for his catcher, a luxury afforded most high school coaches.

Not that he'd use one for Basham, anyway.

"He's by far the best baserunner on the team," Wells said.

He's a good baserunner and he's good at stopping other baserunners. He's a good hitter and he's good at keeping other hitters off-balance. Seems like the only guy who can stop Ben Basham is Ben Basham.