ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, June 5, 1996 TAG: 9606050062
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
THE TERRIERS advance in the Group AA baseball tournament with a one-hit 1-0 win over Grundy.
A trip through the high school baseball playoffs is one of the more memorable parts of a player's school year, but it's been a blur for William Byrd High's team better beware.
Terriers pitcher Chris Manning isn't giving his teammates much to remember.
Manning, a junior left-hander, continued a string of stout postseason outings with a one-hit 1-0 victory over Grundy on Tuesday that required a get-out-the-stopwatch 1 hour, 15 minutes to complete.
``That's the way I like them,'' said Rodney Spradlin, Byrd's coach. ``Get it in to beat the rain.''
The skies provided a dappled pastel of a sunset, in marked contrast to two afternoon cloudbursts (one that made the field white with hail) that threatened to wash out the evening's Group AA quarterfinal. The Byrd field held some water, but the infield was remarkably dry and firm thanks to the skillful ministrations of an amateur groundskeeping crew.
Manning took a no-hitter through the fifth inning, yielding a solitary walk in the fourth. The only other Grundy batter to reach base had done so on a second-inning error.
The sixth was to begin promisingly enough (from a pitching standpoint), the batter being the No.9 man in the order, David Schammell. He did not cooperate with the plan, though, stroking a clean and sharply struck single up the middle.
``Just like when I no-hit Northside, I'd think about [the no-hitter], then I'd forget it when I crossed the white line for the next inning,'' Manning said. ``But just before the sixth, during warmups, I started thinking about it and then couldn't get it out of my mind. Then, the guy hit it and there wasn't anything left to think about.''
Actually, there was the small matter of a one-run lead, slim as a teen-ager's wallet, that required protection. After Schammell stole second, Manning buckled down to record a strikeout (one of 11), a flyball and a groundout to escape unscathed. The Golden Wave ebbed quietly in the seventh.
``Manning is a good kid and anytime he's on the mound, they're going to have a chance,'' Grundy coach Jack Compton said. ``We tried to prepare them by taking a lot of batting practice from several different left-handers. We even put a screen 20 feet from the plate and let him throw them darts, but there's nothing you can really do to prepare them for somebody like Manning.''
Byrd (18-4) next takes to the road to play a semifinal game at 7 p.m. Thursday at Region IV champion Virginia of Bristol. The Bearcats held off William Campbell 2-1 on Tuesday night. The Byrd-Virginia clash is a rematch of the 1992 semifinal won by the Bearcats. This is the first time the Terriers have made it this far.
A year ago was the first time Grundy (16-7) had so much as made it to the regionals.
``We did it with five freshmen then and now we've done it with five sophomores,'' said Jack Compton, Grundy's coach.
Three of the 10th-graders - Albert Hagy, Nathan Vanover and Scotty Bostic - are in the starting lineup. However, the guy who worried Byrd most was a senior - pitcher Tom Crigger. The barrel-chested right-hander scattered three hits.
``I wasn't on the guy much at all,'' said Byrd first baseman Matt Whitehead, who's third-inning double plated the game's only run. ``I think all of us underestimated him.''
NOTE: PLease see microfilm for scores.
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN Staff Byrd's Chris Manning isby CNBcongratulated by teammates after pitching a one-hitter Tuesday night
in the Terriers' 1-0 victory over Grundy in a Group AA baseball
quarterfinal. color.