ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, June 2, 1996 TAG: 9606030136
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: AMHERST
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
Generally speaking, it's hard to beat patience and steely nerves in baseball.
At least, William Campbell couldn't find a way to do it.
William Byrd's hitters chose a variety of means of reaching base and making their way back home again and Terriers pitcher Justin Likens made one slick escape after another. As a result, Byrd won the Group AA Region III tournament by beating the imposing Generals 4-2 Saturday at Amherst County High School.
Byrd (18-4) continued a pattern of advancing to the state tournament in even-numbered years and will entertain Grundy, a 16-4 loser to Virginia High in the Region IV championship game, Tuesday at 7 p.m. in a Group AA quarterfinal. The Terriers also went to the state in 1994 and 1992.
William Campbell (19-3), which last played in a state tournament in 1963 - ``That's before I was born,'' Generals coach Percy Abell said - will travel to Bristol to play Virginia High on Tuesday.
Byrd's batters didn't waste many swings against hard-throwing but erratic right-hander Sharron Braxton. They made him throw strikes and when he didn't, they collected one of their eight walks or reached via one of the quartet of Generals' errors.
``Coach [Rodney Spradlin] gave us the scouting report on Braxton and told us that he threw hard but that sometimes he had trouble throwing strikes,'' said Byrd catcher Brian Jones, who was issued two free passes. ``We just waited on him to throw strikes.''
Byrd had a hit in every inning and eight of nine batters reached safely at least once. There was only one run batted in, though, and that came on Tim Sink's sacrifice fly that started a two-run sixth.
The other runs scored in a hodge-podge of ways. Sink came home on a first-inning double steal. Parker Humphreys walked and scored on a error by the second baseman. Justin Arrington came home with the last Byrd run after reaching on an error, stealing second, taking third on a sacrifice, and scoring on a fielder's choice.
``Again, we did the little things,'' Spradlin said.
The Generals, conquerors of the mighty Seminole District, did not. Almost as damaging as the 12 marooned base runners was William Campbell's fielding miscues.
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LENGTH: Short : 49 linesby CNB