Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 27, 1994 TAG: 9405270021
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CLEMSON, S.C. LENGTH: Medium
A watchband-thick scar, like pursed lips on his left biceps, points to a rebuilt pitching arm . . . but it isn't. The scar is from surgery in the fall of 1992 to remove malignant skin cancer that matters not at all on the mound.
Gibson's numbers in three seasons at Tech - 37 games, 18 starts, 10-7 record, 5.32 earned run average - describe a run-of-the-mill college pitcher . . . but he isn't.
Not now, anyway.
Gibson, a senior from Salem, has won his past two starts, including one in the Metro Conference tournament. In his past 15 1/3 innings, Gibson has given up five hits and one earned run, walked six and struck out 17.
The 6-foot-4, 215-pound pitcher feels sort of like the mirage shimmering in front of him for years at last has become reality.
"I guess I just finally got a little confidence," Gibson said. "They finally started me in some big games. You figure if you're going to do that, you'd better go out there and pitch your [butt] off."
Gibson could start today when fifth-seeded Tech plays its second NCAA East Regional game at Clemson University's Tiger Field. If Ron Preston starts today and the Hokies survive to see Saturday, that will be Gibson's next "big game."
Gibson thinks he should have been a big-game pitcher all along, but Tech coach Chuck Hartman has had other security blankets.
"Until recently, he's never pitched well enough to be in big games," Hartman said. "We always felt like we had somebody better. But besides the past two games, there were a couple times I felt like our season could get away from us and he's come up with a big game."
Gibson kept Tech close in a 9-8 victory over South Florida on April 24 to win the last of a three-game series. USF had broken Tech's 10-game winning streak with 12-2 and 10-2 victories.
Then Gibson won at Southern Mississippi on May 14. Six days later, he beat UNC Charlotte in the Metro tournament.
The key may have been those six days. Gibson said his arm wore down when he pitched four times in six days during Tech's spring-break trip; Hartman said it's "amazing" how much better Gibson throws with proper rest.
All Gibson knows is that if his always-tricky curve ball isn't on, his change-up is.
"Maybe it's just one of those things that it finally happened," Gibson said. "Maybe I'm just lucky that it's coming out like that."
Maybe he's due. Gibson went to South Carolina-Aiken out of high school, but didn't play during the '91 season and said he was one of eight freshmen who transferred because of a rift with the coach.
Gibson attended Virginia Western Community College before arriving at Tech in January 1992.
"I kept telling myself that once I got up there, I wanted to make an impact," he said.
He was 3-4 with a 5.96 ERA in '92, then "hung out in the sun too much." A mole on his left arm was diagnosed as malignant melanoma, and he underwent surgery to have it removed. He had chest X-rays and blood tests every three months for a year after the operation. Now he's tested every four months, and next year it will be every six months. So far, he's clean.
"It worried my parents 10 times more than me," Gibson said, describing his cancer as 98 percent curable. "Maybe it didn't bother me as much as it should have."
Or maybe that was some of the same bravado he takes with him to the mound.
"[Second baseman Justin] Dobson's doing the same thing," Gibson said. "We're both seniors and as of now, knock on wood, we are playing the best we ever have."
Keywords:
BASEBALL
by CNB