ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 4, 1996 TAG: 9604040037
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
TYPE: HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
Baseball season has been for Ed Shannon both the same old blast it always was as well as a little bit sad.
The first-year Narrows High School coach is 50 years old now and is one of the lucky ones who have an excuse to return to a dugout, any dugout, every spring.
Yet Shannon feels a twinge of melancholy when he thinks of his former colleagues, retired Green Wave coach Rick Franklin and assistant Don Lowe. Last year's 6-10 campaign was the last for the staff to be together.
Shannon soldiers on without them, depending on his new assistant, Bryan Patteson, for wise counsel.
It's a new era.
Shannon will tell you he misses his old pals, but he'll never tell you he misses the loaded lineup cards Green Wave coaches used to fill out. The talent level may not be at the elevated levels it frequently was in the past 10 years.
Shannon brushes off comparisons, instead focusing on the virtues of the current group.
"We got some good young ones we're bringing along,'' he said. "The future looks good.''
Maybe it looks a little better than the present - Narrows' lack of experience at key positions may betray it.
Not that the Green Wave is totally, well, green. Justin Rhodes hit .464 with 19 steals last year. Brian Blankenship is a senior playing catcher, perhaps the most important position on the field. Another 12th-grader, Mike Perdue, anchors the outfield.
Rhodes, however, is moving from short to third base. The new shortstop, quick and athletic junior David Turner, hasn't played baseball in a while. Joe Shipbaugh, a junior, is the most battle-tested pitcher. Mike McClosky will be pitching more than he ever has while also serving in the outfield.
The first baseman, Jason McCroskey, is a 10th-grader. A good one, too, as a
"We knew we'd be a little down this year,'' Shannon said. "So I went out and got some guys who I knew were athletes.''
Turner was one of them. So was Robbie Stafford, who will be stationed in the outfield.
"The thing we've got going for is we have nine or 10 good eighth-graders playing JV,'' Shannon said. "We're going to be all right in a few years. Right now, we're basically starting over.''
Other teams around the New River Valley:
Pulaski County also has a new coach in Todd Browning as does Christiansburg with Chuck Stone.
Browning returns to coaching baseball for the first time since he was the boss at Princeton, W.Va., a while back. Browning welcomes a veteran club that includes big boy left-hander Bryan Dalton and right-hander Caleb Hurd, who will be one of the most solid 1-2 mound punches in the Group AAA Roanoke Valley District.
More pitching depth comes from Jason Corvin.
If hitters such as slick center fielder Shane Callahan, Rudge Arnold and Matt Hull come through with the sticks, the Cougars will challenge Franklin County and Cave Spring for the district title.
Kenny Akers, Steven Owen, Council Compton and L.A. Woods add to a senior-dominated roster.
Stone inherits a team that is rebuilding behind catcher David Epperly, the leading returning hitter (.314, two home runs, 14 RBI).
Brian McFarland, the top pitcher coming back, is one of three players who started last year as sophomores. The other two include Eric Lucas at shortstop and Scottie Brubeck at center field, where he has moved after playing in left last year. Brubeck isn't the only Christiansburg player on the move. Chris Epperly is switching from right field to third base.
Christiansburg has eight seniors, but only two have played consistently through high school.
"We have decent pitching,'' Stone said. "No one great one but several good ones. We'll have decent team speed. We won't have a lot of power. We've got a lot of good athletes, guys who can put the bat on the ball and leg one out and then put a lot of pressure on a pitcher once they get on.''
Blacksburg may have the best group it's had in a while.
"We lost a lot of good hitting, but we're going to be able to play defense and the pitching will be good,'' Indians coach Jim Shockley said.
Henry Barnett, a lean right-hander, turned up the gas at the end of last year and won some key games down the stretch as the Indians made it all the way to the Group AA Region IV semifinals. Shockley expects more of the same this year.
Big deeds are predicted of sophomore left-hander Reed Shabman.
"That's two pretty good pitchers you're looking at right there,'' Shockley said. ``Barnett isn't overpowering but he changes speeds well and he can throw three pitches for strikes.''
Barnett was hot when it counted last year, beating Carroll County to help the Indians win the new River District tournament then putting the clamps on Virginia High in the opening round of regionals.
Shoring up the defense will be catcher Michael Davis and shortstop Tommy LaForce, who has moved over from third base. Tom Yancey will be a tough out as will Ryan Broere, who is shifting from right to center.
The Three Rivers District will be a down-to-the-wire affair. Compelling cases for how any one of four teams could win it are easily made. No matter how you handicap it, Giles, Shawsville, Floyd County, and Radford are all going to be in the mix.
Giles has the district's deepest pitching, which in high school ball, means it is halfway there already to winning a championship.
The marquee mound guy is Josh Stephens, a left-hander who also plays first base. Stephens had the big bat when the Spartans went 15-6 last year. This year, the stick should be even bigger. As a pitcher, Stephens went 7-3 with a 2.26 ERA and 78 strikeouts in 64 innings.
Stephens got off to a good start this year when he struck out 14 Christiansburg batters and pitched his way out of a couple of holes.
Also in the rotation are Ben Brown, who is at shortstop when he isn't on the hill, and Neal Mustard. Mustard has the best numbers of the two with a 4-1 record and 3.25 ERA.
Jerod Dalton will alternate between first base and the hill.
``He's the strongest player on the team,'' Giles coach Bruce Frazier said. ``He'll be a longball threat.''
Chris Hutchison, a player off last year's JV team, has two homers already for the Spartans. Stephens will smack it a long way in the Spartans cozy ballpark or, for that matter, any ballpark.
Shawsville has one of the area's most experienced teams.
Mark Akers at shortstop and Brad Dalton, a multifaceted utility player, are four-year starters. Catcher Dewayne Yopp is in his third year as is left-handed pitcher-center fielder Jason Smith. Barnett Carr, a good left-hand hitter, can play with second or short.
Yopp set a school record for a catcher with a .991 fielding average.
Akers went 3-0 with a 1.00 ERA in spot duty last year. Smith went 4-5 with a 2.29 ERA.
``This is the most versatile team I've had,'' Shawnees coach Billy Wells said. ``I have four or five guys who can play every position.''
Radford coach Wayne Pridgen has some versatile players of his own, but what he really needs is pitching.
The extent to which Pridgen requires help on the hill is indicated by his willingness to sacrifice a double-play combination that has been together for four years. Derek Englehard at short and Hart Fowler at second are both in the rotation for the first time. The defense can't help but be weaker when either takes the mound, it would seem.
When they're together, they may be the most solid around.
``Fowler and Englehard are the best middle infield duo I saw last year,'' Shawsville's Wells said.
Neil Artrip, another lightly experienced hurler, will also be in the rotation. Billy Viers is moving in from left field to catch. All three outfielders, Mike Lester in center, Steve Homiak in left, and Artrip in right, are seniors.
``Don't put in there we're loaded,'' Pridgen said. ``Out of the nine seniors I have, five of them haven't played lately.''
Floyd County will have many new faces.
Right-hander Robert Favre, who has some nasty stuff, will be the ace of the staff but he's the only pitcher who can really be described as battle-tested. He'll also have one of the team's best bats, as he indicated by getting off to a 7-for-9 start to this season.
Jason Dalton, a sophomore, has a good arm, and will share some of the pitching load. A year ago, he showed a strong bat and hit .384. He'll play shortstop when he isn't pitching.
Derek Hodges, a .300 hitter, is moving from right to center. Kamal Chantal, a state champion wrestler, will hold down the hot corner.
One to keep an eye on is Eli Mannon, a switch-hitting freshman who is good enough to play shortstop when Dalton is otherwise occupied.
Auburn is trying to bounce back from a 2-18 season.
Some of the better ones here are sophomores. These include first baseman Devan Howard (.294, 13 RBI last year), shortstop and pitcher Mark Lovern (.300, eight RBI), and pitcher and left fielder Luke Cunningham.
Conrad Hughes, a senior, hasn't played much high school baseball, but he's still a good enough athlete to land a spot in center field and probably a job as the team's closer.
Junior Travis Harvey, a transfer from Christiansburg, is expected to help out with the pitching.
LENGTH: Long : 169 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: RAY COX/Staff. Narrows coach Ed Shannon (kneeling) runsby CNBa soft-toss batting drill with Jason McCroskey as Justin Rhodes
(behind Shannon) and Joe Shipbaugh (far right) await their turns.
color.