Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 28, 1994 TAG: 9405280025
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CLEMSON, S.C. LENGTH: Medium
Then the Hokies tried to eat with their fingers and ruined the meal.
With runners on second and third, none out and Tech down by a run in the ninth inning, The Citadel reliever Donald Morillo got two strikeouts and a ground out as the Bulldogs won 4-3 and eliminated the Tech baseball team from the NCAA Tournament East Regional.
Fifth-seeded Tech couldn't overcome sixth-seeded The Citadel's four-run first inning, in which Ron Preston allowed six straight batters to reach - two on walks and one on a pop-fly center fielder Popeye Smith lost in high clouds behind Clemson University's Tiger Stadium press box.
Tech closer Charlie Gillian struck out the side (around a walk and a hit batsman) in the eighth after The Citadel's Bo Betchman reached third on second baseman Justin Dobson's fielding error and catcher Denny Hedspeth's wild pickoff throw.
In the ninth, Tech's Josh Herman reached on shortstop Jermaine Shuler's high throw. Pinch runner Kris Turberville aggressively took third on Kevin Barker's sliced single to left-center, with Barker moving up on the throw.
Morillo relieved Brian Callahan, replacing the starter's 90 mph fastball with a nasty slider. Bulldogs coach Fred Jordan left his middle infield alone.
"We still had three outs," he said. "We were not going to bring our infield in and them chip it through and us be behind."
Hedspeth struck out on four pitches, the last about a foot outside.
"He threw me four great pitches," Hedspeth said. "He beat me. I'd like to have 'em again, but I don't think it's gonna happen."
Pinch hitter Bryan King followed and looked at a third strike. Smith's first-pitch grounder to second ended it.
"I didn't go away from my pitch that's helped me all year; that was my slider," said Morillo, who was the designated hitter Friday before earning his ninth save. "I don't think I threw a fastball."
Tech coach Chuck Hartman credited his team with giving itself a chance to win, but the Hokies couldn't duplicate their run through the Metro Conference tournament last week that put them in an NCAA regional for the first time since 1977.
"It's frustrating when you get second and third and can't get a run out of it," Smith said. "But if Ronnie would've had a little better first inning and I would've read that ball better . . . we'd probably be up by two runs."
Instead, the Hokies (32-26) were the first team bounced from this eight-team regional. The Citadel (32-33), which had to win the Southern Conference tournament and a three-game play-in series to make the NCAA field, is 27-16 after a 5-17 start.
The Bulldogs, in their seventh NCAA Tournament since 1967, are the only team in the 48-team field with a losing record.
Tech nearly produced its own turnaround Friday, falling behind 4-0 in the first before Preston rolled through the next six innings, at one point retiring eight in a row.
In the fourth, Herman's RBI single and Barker's RBI groundout gave Tech its first runs of the tournament after 12 scoreless innings. An inning later, Justin Dobson doubled and scored on Sal Colangelo's single to make it 4-3.
Before those hits, however, Smith tried to stretch a single and was thrown out by center fielder Garrick Haltiwanger, a running back on The Citadel's football team who also robbed Bo Durkac of a first-inning extra-base hit with a diving catch.
"When I made my turn I saw the center fielder kind of loafing in to get the ball," Smith said. "He's gotta make a perfect throw. When I'm playing center field, if I don't come in hard on a ball I've got a tendency to make a bad throw."
Haltiwanger was accurate, though the Bulldogs did commit three errors, two of which led to one unearned run for the Hokies.
But Callahan, who won the clinching games in the Southern Conference and NCAA play-in series, didn't crack until the ninth. Morillo then made the repairs.
The Hokies lost for the 10th time in 19 one-run games. They are 3-10 in NCAA play. Their three-day stay in Clemson apparently wasn't a total loss, though.
"I enjoyed the ending of this season," said Dobson, a senior. "It's better than the ending of my previous three years. We made it to the regionals, the best we've ever done."
by CNB