July 23, 2000

By: Travis Everette, Carolina Baseball

The Coastal Plains league tour rolled on for me last week with a nice trip through central North Carolina to Asheboro's McCrary Park. McCrary is home to the South Division leading Asheboro Copperheads. By the way, you'll have to excuse the really bad pun with the whole "Striking" thing in the title. With a snake for a mascot, I couldn't resist.

There are a couple of reasons that Asheboro is leading the southern division this half, and a big part of that success has been the pitching of Tar Heel duo Scott Autrey and Jason King. The two have identical 2.70 earned run averages and have combined for a 7-2 record through 80.0 innings pitched. Together they have struck out 63 opposing batters on the season and have been the Copperheads' two most effective starters by far.

However the real reason for my writing today about the snake pit (as Asheboro fans call McCrary) is the recent addition of a designated hitter from UNC. Ryan Blake had not stepped to the plate in a baseball game since February 23 before his first start in a Copperhead uniform on Thursday evening, and to be honest it showed. Blake was a sobering 0-4 with 3 strikeouts and had begun to wonder if this whole idea of playing the rest of the CPL season had not been a bad idea. Of course, it didn't help matters any that sitting in the opposing dugout was Outer Banks head coach and UNC pitching coach Roger Williams. Coach Williams knew exactly how long it had been since Ryan had seen live pitching and made sure that fastballs were few and far between.

When the Durham Braves rolled into town on Friday night, Blake got a chance to chat with Tar Heel teammates Russ Adams, Chris Maples, and Matt Tanner. The conversation with Tanner would prove to be very interesting later on in the evening, but the stage must be set first. In Ryan's first plate appearance of the evening, he quickly got behind in the count no balls and two strikes. After fighting off some good pitches from the Durham starter, he flew out to right field and came back to the dugout frustrated once again. The second at bat would be much better though as he stepped to the plate with the bases loaded, no men out, and his team trailing by three runs.

I had just remarked to Ryan's dad, Randy, who was also in attendance, that this could be a great at bat for him and he needed to get a hit here. It was about that time that Blake ripped a 2-2 fastball to the left-centerfield gap as he collected both his first CPL hit and his first RBI's. Blake really should have been credited with 3 RBI had the runner on first base not been slower than Grandma's homemade molasses on a frosty January mroning as he was thrown out at the plate. I guess it was fitting, though, that Blake went on to score the tying run in an eventual Asheboro win.

Now, back to the little conversation between Ryan and Matt Tanner pre-game. Tanner knew just how thouroughly Blake had struggled in his first game, so he offered a friendly gesture when he told Ryan that should he come in the game in relief for the Braves and face him, he would throw a first pitch fastball right over the middle of the plate. So, needless to say, when Ryan Blake walked to the batter's box in the bottom of the 7th inning, he did so with with a large grin on his face. He was expecting not only his second hit of the night, but his first CPL homerun. The expression of disbelief on his face as he swung through that curveball in the dirt was a little funny, and Tanner did go on to strike his buddy out with a series of off-speed breaking stuff. After the game, Matt came off of the field grinning from ear to ear as Blake could only shake his head. Ryan should have known from the get-go that no pitcher is ever that nice.

I am sure you will all be happy to know that Ryan has rebounded in a big way since his opening swoon. As of right now, he is second on the team in batting average at a .333 clip and had a 3-5 performance against Thomasville on Saturday night. I'm sure that both he and the Copperheads feel pretty secure in their decisions to have him play in Asheboro for the remainder of the season. In a way, I guess they both "struck" gold.

P.S. Should you ever go to an Asheboro game, do make a point to stop by the Hawaian Ice stand on the first base bank. I guarantee most of you will love it. I say most only because having attended a game with Joe Bray at McCrary, I realize that some people get the stuff anywhere but in their mouths. Sorry Joe, but you know I couldn't let you get off so easy on that one, and I'm glad that at least Christy bought Peach flavored. Cherry would have been a disaster.