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

DATE: THURSDAY, June 29, 1995                   TAG: 9506290073
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

AREA WOMEN'S BASEBALL TEAM SEARCHING FOR IDENTITY

So, what does it matter that the Roanoke Valley's first all-woman baseball team hasn't got a name two days before the team's first game?

"They can't decide what they want to call themselves," said Randall Holley, president of the local adult baseball league.

They don't have a sponsor, either, but they'll be on the field Saturday for their first official game. At 11:45 at Glenvar High School, the New York Skyliners will meet the Roanoke ... uh, the Roanoke women's team.

Holley guessed there are 30 to 40 women's adult baseball teams nationwide. To compare, there are 24 men's teams in the Roanoke/Lynchburg/Blue Ridge League alone, he said.

The team formed one month ago, and has been getting tips and training from their male peers, as well as from Washington and Lee University coach Mike Walsh, who has been teaching the women to pitch.

One player, Kelly Hengry, had slugged it out for two years with the "boys" in the baseball league. Holley said she began to organize a women's team this year.

"I didn't think we'd get the response we did just by word of mouth," he said. Before long, 15 women had signed up, all of them diehard softball players.

The biggest difference is the games is the pitch - underhand in softball, overhand in baseball. The baseball diamond is larger, the ball smaller and harder, the bat fatter and the rules different, Holley said.

The women will also play 5 p.m. on Saturday at William Fleming High School against the Virginia Beach Mustangs, and 9 a.m. Sunday at Glenvar against the BQE's (Brooklyn, Queens and Everybody).