Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 27, 1994 TAG: 9405270065
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CLEMSON, S.C. LENGTH: Medium
For Virginia Tech, it was like being KO'd by a guy wielding a pompon.
Auburn pitcher John Powell observed no off-speed limit as he curved, slurved and split-fingered his way to a three-hit, 7-0 shutout of the Hokies in an NCAA East Regional first-round game Thursday at Clemson University's Tiger Field.
Fifth-seeded Tech was shut out for the first time in its past 100 games.
The Hokies play an elimination game at 11 a.m. today against sixth-seeded The Citadel, which dropped a 5-1 decision to top-ranked Clemson in Thursday's night game. Tech (32-25) must win to avoid a short stay in its first NCAA appearance since 1977.
At 7:30 p.m. today, second-seeded Auburn (41-19 and ranked 20th in Collegiate Baseball and 24th in USA Today/Baseball Weekly) plays third-seeded Old Dominion (40-12), a 9-5 winner over Notre Dame (44-15) in Wednesday's first game.
Tech, which probably will start Ron Preston (4-9, 6.72 ERA), won't face anyone like Powell, a senior who is the NCAA's all-time leader in strikeouts. Twelve victims Thursday gave Powell 10 or more whiffs for the fifth consecutive outing and the seventh time this year. He has 586 strikeouts in 462 innings for his career.
Second baseman Justin Dobson's clean single with one out in the sixth was the Hokies' first hit. It put runners on first and third, but Auburn first baseman Jay Waggoner turned Popeye Smith's line drive into an unassisted double play.
Aside from that, Powell made sure there was more suspense in two rain delays that lasted a total of 104 minutes than in Tech's half-innings.
Powell, who rarely throws harder than 80 mph, faced 31 batters and threw 17 first-pitch strikes, mostly with breaking balls. He had five 1-2-3 innings.
Auburn, an at-large entrant from the Southeastern Conference, had a 5-0 lead after four innings against Tech left-hander Brian Fitzgerald, who walked in a run in the second inning and gave up three runs on four hits in the fourth, including right fielder Mike Killimett's two-run double.
"Powell might be the best right-hander I've faced in college baseball," said Bo Durkac, who had two of the Hokies' hits. "I was really amazed at his split-finger the first two times up. Even had we known the off-speed stuff was coming, it's good enough that it's still tough to hit."
Chuck Hartman, Tech's coach, said his hitters didn't make adjustments as the game went on - despite separate rain delays of 44 minutes and an hour - "and that kind of bothered me."
Powell, meanwhile, lost nothing while sitting. The summer-like humidity, he said, made it easy to get loose after the delays.
"The big thing is just keeping your head mentally," he said. "Sometimes it can wander. [But] I had better stuff the second time I went out."
Fitzgerald couldn't match Powell. He pitched Auburn away with his tailing fastball, but Mark Bellhorn and Killimett had back-to-back hits (Bellhorn's to the opposite field) in the first, putting Auburn up 1-0.
After the Tigers added a run in the second, Waggoner's reach-and-poke single to left - he was in a 7-for-38 slump before that at-bat - set up Shawn McNally's RBI double that made it 3-0 in the fourth. Fitzgerald walked Bellhorn before Killimett's two-run double gave Auburn a 5-0 lead.
"They're a good spray-hitting team," said Fitzgerald, the Metro Conference tournament's most valuable player. "You didn't see many balls pulled in the game."
The Tigers were 5-3 against left-handers this year, and coach Hal Baird wasn't happy about meeting a lefty in the regional opener. But the SEC's top-hitting team (.318) supported Powell and left him three victories shy of the all-time SEC mark of 45 by Mississippi State's Jeff Brantley.
"We try to attack each left-hander the same way - stay late and hit 'em the other way," said Auburn catcher Robert Lewis. "We came out really focused and actually made it look fairly easy, as if we knew exactly what to do."
by CNB