THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 1, 1996 TAG: 9608010306
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JAMES C. BLACK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: 60 lines
Peanuts and popcorn and cracker jack . . .
Well, there's no seventh-inning stretch at the Virginia State Little League Majors Tournament but other major league ingredients aren't too hard to find.
In the stands at Olive Branch, you'll see parents dancing in line like the Rockettes. On the field, you can watch their sons gesturing and hot-dogging like their favorite big league players.
``They're representing their leagues as All-Stars and they're trying to make it to Williamsport,'' Butch Cuthrell, director of the tournament, said of the players.
Williamsport - that's the big dance of the Little League circuit. But first, 15 teams have to battle one another in Hampton Roads for a trip to the Southern Divisional Tournament in St. Petersburg, Fla., starting Aug. 8.
Back in Portsmouth for the first time since 1982, the Virginia tournament does not command the attention that the Williamsport, Pa., event does. Or at least not the consolation rounds. Yet, the players and 100 or so fans for each game enjoy every moment of the action.
``That's the way uh-huh, uh-huh, we like it,'' the Cave Spring moms chant from the centerfield bleachers after a base hit.
Meanwhile, their sons are on the diamond getting hammered by Virginia Beach's Plaza squad, 11-2. When all is said and done though, there are no tears and bad attitudes. Just handshakes with the director and acceptance of tournament pins.
In the second game, not everyone is as modest or low-key.
Dale City's Timmy St. Claire knew he hit a home run when the bat hit the ball. Straight over the centerfield fence the 0-1 fifth-inning fastball went, giving Dale City a 5-1 lead.
And he acknowledged the shot when he stopped before reaching first base; and again as he slowly circled the bases. But he was not showing anyone up.
``I was just waiting for the guy to run,'' St. Claire said of a teammate on first base who was delaying his progress.
An inning later, St. Claire went to the plate with the bases juiced. Different pitch count, same result - a grand slam over the left-centerfield fence, his third home run of the tournament.
Again, he slowly trotted around the bases, this time pointing into his dugout.
St. Claire was letting his older teammates know that the 11-year-olds have only one fewer homer in the tournament than the 12-year-olds, who have hit five. ILLUSTRATION: BILL TIERNAN photos/The Virginian-Pilot
Chris Tenney of Plaza fouls off a pitch against Cave Spring of
Roanoke. Plaza, of Virginia Beach, won the Little League playoff
game, 11-2.
After the game, Patrick Walters and Peter Gustafson of Cave Spring
gather dirt as a memento of the Little League tournament.
Between innings Wednesday, Dove Crum massages arm of her son Matt,
who pitched Virginia Beach's Plaza over Roanoke's Cave Spring. by CNB