DATE: Friday, May 23, 1997                  TAG: 9705210178

SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS     PAGE: 12   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PAUL WHITE, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   70 lines

ALLIANCE CHRISTIAN SWEEPS TWO TITLES

The Alliance baseball team called it a ``dream season.''

Were they not a humble bunch, the Falcons softball team might have referred to theirs as a typical season.

Both teams brought championship play to the small Portsmouth private school (90 students in grades 9-12), as they recorded matching Metro Conference regular season and tournament championship titles in their respective sports.

The Falcons baseball team, buoyed by the addition of some talented transfers, capped off a 15-2 season last Friday by downing nemesis Hampton Christian, 10-6, in the Metro Conference final.

``I've been waiting for a season like this ever since I started playing here,'' Alliance All-Metro infielder Chad Feyer said. ``It's been like a dream.''

On the same day, freshman pitcher Melissa Renfrow won her ninth game of the season as the Falcons trounced Broadwater, 12-1, for their fourth straight tournament crown. Alliance has won the title each year the tournament's been held.

Renfrow, the conference's most outstanding player, was one of five Falcons to make the All-Metro team, along with Amanda Renfrow, Stephanie Roberson, Caroline Knight and Stephanie Glisan.

In addition, the Falcons' Mike Renfrow was named coach of the year.

Both Alliance teams advanced to the eight-team state private school tournaments, which began Tuesday.

Metro baseball titles are hardly new at Alliance. The school has now won 12 regular season and 10 tournament titles. There had been a recent mini-drought, though. The Falcons hadn't won a regular-season title since 1990 and were without a tournament crown since 1992.

But this season, an Alliance baseball team that figured to be solid anyway became special with the addition of brothers Nick and Chris Huneycutt, who returned to Alliance after two years at Greenbrier. Nick, a senior and a first-team All-TCIS performer last season, went 4-1 on the mound, while sophomore Chris posted a 5-1 mark. Both had ERAs under two.

Nick Huneycutt gained notice earlier in the season when he fired five-inning no-hitters in both games of a doubleheader. Chris Huneycutt recorded his own no-hitter while striking out 11 in a 2-0 Metro Conference semifinals victory over Portsmouth Christian.

Both Huneycutts joined Feyer on the All-Metro team.

So dominant was the Alliance pitching that the Falcons allowed only two earned runs in sprinting out to a 9-0 start.

Both Huneycutts, Feyer, Shannon Insley, and Granby transfer Trent Boyd added key offensive contributions.

``It was always someone different stepping up at the plate,'' Feyer said. ``When the top five guys couldn't get it done, the guys at the bottom of the order would come through.''

The Falcons' future might be even better than the present. Alliance loses just two seniors, something the players feel could enable them to move up to the level of Greenbrier Christian, which has fielded the state's premier private-school team throughout most of this decade.

``We'd like to start our own era here,'' Boyd said.

Having won three straight conference tournament titles coming into the season, the Alliance softball team was the clear favorite to make it four in a row. But the squad got off to an admittedly sluggish start, something that precipitated a team meeting led by coach Renfrow.

The players say a pivotal part of the meeting was when school assistant administrator Charlie Baumgartner told a poignant story about his own youth sports days.

Baumgartner downplayed his speech. But the players say by the time he was finished, the once-fractious group was ready to launch into a chorus of ``We Are Family.''

``I don't even remember what the story was now, but we all listened to him,'' Glisan said. ``It helped bring us closer together.''

The Alliance softball team has now won 10 regular-season titles.

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