THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 12, 1996 TAG: 9604120761
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ROBIN BRINKLEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
Six hits, six home runs.
Those are the freakiest statistics of the young high school baseball season and they belong to First Colonial centerfielder Jeff Butler.
Two of those on Thursdaylifted the second-ranked Patriots (4-2, 2-0) to a 4-3 victory over No. 1 Cox in 10 innings.
Cox (5-1, 2-1) led 3-0 after five innings behind ace Jason Dubois and Falcons coach John Ingram was joking with a fan about going undefeated.
But Butler slugged a two-run home run off Dubois in the bottom of the sixth to make it 3-3 and then won it with a one-out bases-empty shot off Tim Lavigne that barely cleared the leftfield fence.
``I'm at a loss for words,'' Butler said, flashing the dazed look of a hero who didn't quite know how he had done it.
Only he did know. Home runs have become his specialty, so much so that he was thinking long ball when he stepped in against Lavigne with one out in the 10th. He hit a 2-0 fastball down the middle.
``I didn't know if it was gone,'' he said. ``I was thinking double.''
Cox leftfielder Frank McDonnell retreated to the fence and leaped, but the ball just eluded his grasp.
Dubois allowed only one hit through five innings and First Colonial coach Norbie Wilson sensed his team unraveling.
A pair of fielding blunders contributed to Cox's first two runs and with runners on second and third and none out in the fifth the Patriots ran themselves out of a rally.
That should have been the break Dubois needed to run his record to 3-0. But in the sixth, Steve Tyler tripled and scored on Nate Frost's sacrifice fly. Brad Tetlow walked and Butler followed with his first home run.
First Colonial left the bases loaded in the seventh and Cox did the same in the eighth.
Steve Johnson faced only one batter and was the winning pitcher. He relieved Ed Manley, who went 9 2/3 innings and allowed six hits. Only two of those hits came after the third inning.
``You've got to hand it to Norbie and First Colonial,'' Ingram said. ``That's the program you set the standard by. Until you beat them, they're a contender and you're a pretender.'' by CNB