ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, May 23, 1996 TAG: 9605230027
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PEARISBURG
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
Some of Giles High School's baseball games this season have produced a homesick feeling.
When the Spartans are home in their cozy ballpark, opponents often are left feeling sick.
It is that queasy, yucky sensation prompted by the hasty exit from the premises of a baseball after it has met with Spartan aluminum.
To the distress of many a guest at Giles, the odd home run has not been an isolated incident. Most often, the blasts have come from the bats of senior Josh Stephens and junior Chris Hutchison, who are fast developing a collective identity as the Big Bang Brothers.
Stephens stroked eight regular-season homers and Hutchison seven, which would have left them respectively tops in Timesland and tied for second in the end-of-season rankings.
Which brings us back to the address at which most of these dingers were donged. All but one of the 15 were stroked on the Spartans diamond.
``It feels better when you hit them at home,'' Hutchison said. ``There's a bigger crowd cheering for you and a home run here is more intimidating for the other team.''
Cynics can talk until they are Spartan-style red in the face about the invitingly close fences at Giles. As far as Giles coach Bruce Frazier is concerned, they can keep on talking.
``Just about every one of those homers would have been out anywhere,'' he said.
You can harp on a short porch, but you can't say much about a 17-1 record, which is what the Spartans took into the Three Rivers District tournament this week. Hutchison and Stephens had a major influence on the course of the Giles campaign.
Stephens was the given. He'd made a name for himself as a junior with his hitting and pitching, not to mention his high spirits.
Hutchison was more of an unknown quantity, although everybody knew he packed plenty of athletic ability into a long and lean frame. Frazier dispatched him immediately to center field.
Hutchison bats second and Stephens third, but there is more that separates these two than a year in school and a spot in the batting order. Stephens offers one.
``He's a better hitter than I am,'' he said.
Perhaps, although statistics indicate the baseball equivalent of a dead heat. Stephens recently was hitting .511 to Hutchison's .460. Both players had 23 hits although Hutchison had five more at bats. In that light, the only point that can be established with certainty is that the two players are different.
``Josh has more raw power; Chris has more technique,'' Frazier said. ``It's kind of like a comparison between John Daly and Fred Couples.''
Stephens has ways to contribute that don't involve swinging a bat. For one, he's the Spartans' top pitcher. A left-hander, he struck out 58 batters during the regular season while going 4-1 in a three-man rotation. When he isn't on the mound, he's playing first base.
Occasionally, his pitching has an impact on what happens when he takes his station in the batter's box.
``It depends,'' he said. ``Sometimes I pitch well and don't hit anything and sometimes I pitch mediocre and hit everything.''
Stephens doesn't worry about whether he'll hit or not.
``I know if I don't, Chris will light it up anyway.''
Hutchison is similarly confident.
``There hasn't been a game yet when both of us went cold,'' he said.
Neither one of them seem to mind putting pressure on himself. Take the game when Craig County visited earlier this season.
``In the parking lot before the game, I see Chris coming in and I asked him, `Think you'll hit a home run today?''' Stephens said.
``And I said, `I don't know. What about you?''' Hutchison said. ``He says, `If you do, I will.'''
Both of them did.
If that strikes you as a little Ruthesque, how about this:
``Every game, [teammate] B.J. Thompson and I have a bet,'' Stephens said. ``If I hit a home run, he owes me a Mello Yello. If I don't, I owe him one. Well, 16 games, eight home runs. We're dead even.''
Giles will have some more ball to play in the Group A, Region C tournament and maybe a game or two after that. And although Stephens plans to play American Legion ball this summer, the end of his playing days may be in sight unless he can attract some interest from a college recruiter.
``I want to go to college, anywhere they need a water boy or anything that would get me on a team,'' he said.
Frazier has been trying to drum up some collegiate interest on Stephens' behalf.
``I think Josh and Chris are both college material,'' Frazier said.
Hutchison has the luxury of a little more time to be seen by an appropriate party. All the better to follow baseball advice from his family.
``My brother Stacy and my father [Pat] always tell me when I don't try to hit a home run, that's when I'll get one. My mother [Vicki] is always telling me about my swing, `Hard and level.'''
Good advice. The numbers suggest that both Hutchison and Stephens have taken it to heart.
LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN KIM/Staff. Giles hitters Josh Stephens (left) andby CNBChris Hutchison have
combined for 15 home runs this season. color.