ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, May 24, 1996 TAG: 9605240053
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
Bob Davies made a historic debut in the Division III baseball championships Thursday, but his most incredible number won't be found in the NCAA record book.
The Marietta right-hander pitched into the 13th inning against Upper Iowa in the tournament opener at Salem Memorial Stadium. He also struck out a championships-record 17 Peacocks - and lost.
Although No.9 hitter Steve Zeman's two-out RBI single in the bottom of the 13th ended Davies' day, it was left to his coach to provide the most startling development.
Asked how many pitches his ace threw in the 6-5 loss, Pioneers coach Don Schaly said, ``Entering that last inning, it was 209.''
Schaly was asked to repeat the number.
``Two-oh-nine,'' he said.
Davies, sitting next to Schaly in an interview session, raised his eyebrows into one of those deer-in-the-headlights looks.
``It did kind of shock me when Coach said that,'' Davies (13-4) said a few minutes later. ``I had no idea. I had lost a little something on my fastball, but I didn't feel tired.''
After the ninth, 10th, 11th and 12th innings, when the right-hander walked into the Marietta dugout, Schaly asked whether Davies' rare effort was turning well done.
``Once before that,'' Davies said, ``I think it was in the ninth, Coach came out [to the mound] and asked, `Do you want me to pitch?'''
The Peacocks couldn't believe Davies kept coming out of the dugout for the bottom of extra innings.
``We thought his arm was going to fall off,'' said Zeman, who hit Davies' 225th pitch of a 31/2-hour game.
Davies, 20, stayed out there for his 10th complete game in 15 starts, not only because he is the top-ranked Pioneers' ace, but also because it was just this situation that brought his transfer from Johns Hopkins to the perennial baseball power in his home state after last season.
``I was nervous at first, but it was more excitement than anything,'' Davies said of his first national-championships inning for a program that has produced big-league pitchers Kent Tekulve and Terry Mulholland.
``In high school [in Warren, Ohio], I chose between Johns Hopkins and Marietta,'' Davies said. ``Some of the reason I switched was about baseball, but it was more about me.
``I went to Hopkins because I wanted to be a doctor, and still do, maybe a pediatrician. Some people fit into certain schools in certain places. The people there were nice, but I just didn't fit there, so I changed schools.''
After a 4-1 freshman year for the Baltimore school, the biology major began the season as the No.3 man in the Marietta rotation. He now leads the nation in victories and strikeouts.
It was a day to remember for Davies, but far from his best one with his deceptive slider. He fell behind in the count too often, and on the scoreboard 2-0 on Travis Mueller's first-inning homer. Upper Iowa came from behind three times to tie the score before winning.
The 13 innings matched the Division III series record for the longest game. Two others went 13. Davies' 122/3 innings were one out short of the 1988 mound record belonging to Methodist's Danny Tester.
The 17 whiffs broke the series standard of 14 by Montclair State's Brian Cheswick in 1986 against Wisconsin-Oshkosh. Davies also established a school record for strikeouts in a game.
He began the game tied for first in the nation in strikeouts (118) with Ferrum's Jimmy Hamilton. Even if Davies doesn't or can't pitch again this season, his day pushed him past Mulholland as Marietta's single-season strikeouts king.
And only one pitcher in 21 years of Division III tournaments has struck out more hitters than Davies did Peacocks. That happened last week, when Rensselaer's Dave Lohrman fanned 18 Cortland State hitters in starting RPI toward its first national series trip.
With three-time champion Marietta in the losers' bracket and playing again today, Davies figures to pitch again only if the Pioneers can survive for a few days.
``I'm not sure when I can come back,'' Davies said. ``It all depends on how my arm feels. In the regionals [last week], I went nine one day, had a day off, then got in three innings the next day. But I've never been in this situation before.''
Neither has anyone else.
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Davies. color.by CNB