Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 15, 1994 TAG: 9406150008
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: BIG STONE GAP LENGTH: Medium
Anderson bound and chained host Powell Valley with a four-hitter and further enriched his team with two hits, and a run batted in as the Highlanders advanced to the state Group A baseball championship with a 5-3 victory in front of an estimated 1,000 sunburned and sweating patrons Tuesday.
Now of course the question, as it was at precisely this time last year, is will Anderson get the call, on two days rest, when Glenvar plays in its second-consecutive state championship Friday?
"Better ask him that," Glenvar coach Larry Wood said.
Anderson didn't bother to wait for the query.
"I'll get the call," he said.
In fact, Anderson wanted to depart for the far reaches of Victoria, the home of the other semifinal winner, Central of Lunenburg, the very minute the sweltering Highlanders dugout had been cleared. Central beat Brentsville 8-3 Tuesday.
Anderson may have been the only one with much energy left after this high-blood pressure, high-humidity affair.
"That's a tough pitcher there," said Powell Valley coach Buster Taylor, whose team took it hard after finishing at 21-3. "That's the second one in a row we've seen, too [counting Castlewood fireballer Denny Wagner, whom the Vikings beat in the quarterfinals].
"They're too completely different styles. Wagner may have a little bit better fastball, but Anderson is much more of a polished pitcher. He goes out there with an idea of a game plan and he sticks to it."
Anderson was as sharp as he'll ever get, walking none and striking out eight. At one point, he threw 21-straight strikes, including three 0-2 pitches that went for base hits. Two of the knocks - Kevin Reid's in the fifth and Greg Bishop's in the sixth - drove in runs.
"If it hadn't been so hot, I wouldn't have hesitated to waste some pitches 0-2," he said. "But I just wanted to let them hit it and hope that my defense would hold up. For a while, it looked like it might not, but it did."
Only one of the Vikings' runs was earned. Three Glenvar errors were, as usual, costly. But the Vikings weren't hitting the ball that hard to begin with.
"The last two games are the best he's pitched all year," Wood said. "There are some good pitchers around, but I wouldn't trade him for any of them."
Powell Valley sophomore left-hander Todd Zirkle didn't suffer much by comparison. He scattered five hits, striking out nine, and walking three in a route-going performance.
Two of the first three hits off Zirkle were Anderson's (the other was Joey Hutton's bunt). Hutton's soft shot preceded Anderson spank just barely past the reach of the second baseman in the fourth. That brought home Tim Carroll, who had led off the inning with a walk.
"You couldn't pick up the spin on [Zirkle's] curve until it was halfway to the plate," said Anderson, a three-time All-Timesland choice. "Then, you just had to follow it in."
When the throw came in from right in an attempt to catch Carroll at the plate, Anderson bolted for second, where he beat the throw from Bishop the catcher. In the scramble Hutton alertly stole home to make it 2-0.
Powell Valley answered with a run in the fifth on Reid's single, but Glenvar came back with three more in the sixth. Two walks set up a two-out rally fueled by Rob Robinson's liner up the middle and a pair of Vikings errors.
"A couple of routine plays ... " Taylor said.
Defensive faux pas laid the groundwork for two unearned Powell Valley runs in the bottom of the inning. That and two-strike hitting by Ryan Witt and Bishop.
"As an old coach in the Lonesome Pine District would say, they're the best 0-2 hitters in the world right then," Taylor said. "Every day in batting practice we work on two-strike hitting the last thing."
But that wasn't quite enough to beat Glenvar (22-2-1). Anderson mowed down the bottom of the order in the Vikings seventh with a strikeout, a fly to right, and a dribbler that went catcher to first.
by CNB