The Greenville News from Greenville, South Carolina • Page 19

tulCjJitlDS in Vy I L-J lassffids Tuesday, October 15, 1985 Sectioned II r' i i Lr-uLJ FOSTER fa i i 7 i The Wizard of Oz puts a spell on L.A. Darc history haunts Dodgers once again It was no trouble picking the hero of Monday's game. St. Louis shortstop Ozzie Smith's last-of-the-ninth homer took care of that. After he changed sides of the plate for national tengua that last turn at bat, they barely had time to Championship Series St.

Louis leads, 3-2 Next game: Wednesday, 3 p.m. Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles. TV Radio: NBC (WYFF, channel 4), CBS Radio (WSPA-AM, 950). Probable pitchers flash on the TV screen that in more than 3,000 tries, Smith had never hit a homer from the left side, when Over the wall she went. And now the dark shadow of history starts reaching out to the Dodgers.

They ha vp th rrw Lei ST. LOUIS (AP) Ozzie Smith, called the Wizard of Oz for his glove, now has another prop in his magic act a bat. In perhaps his most surprising trick certainly the most crowd-pleasing Smith hit a one-out, ninth-inning home run Monday to give the Cardinals a 3-2 victory over Los Angeles in Game 5 of the National League playoffs and a 3-2 lead in games as the best-of-seven series heads back to Dodger Stadium. It was the first left-handed home run in his eight years in the major leagues, a career noted primarily for his superb glove work at shortstop. "All I was trying to do was get the ball down the line, into the corner," Smith said.

"Fortunately, I got enough to put it out. It was exciting. This is a peak time for us." With the victory, the Cardinals swept the three games in their home park after losing the first two at Los Angeles. Wednesday's sixth game will match Game 2 starters Orel Hershiser of Los Angeles and Joaquin Andujar of The homer, on a 1-2 pitch from Tom Niedenfuer, was the first for the switch-hitting Smith as a left-handed batter in 3,002 regular-season and postseason at-bats. He had only 13 previous homers, including six this season.

Smith called the homer the highlight of his career, saying, "We were down two games in Los Angeles, and we came back and accomplished what we had to accomplish here." Before Smith's dramatic homer Monday, the two teams had played a 2-2 tie created by Bill Madlock's two-run home run for the Dodgers in the fourth inning. In and out of trouble, Dodger lefthander Fernando Valenzuela finally left after throwing 132 pitches through eight innings, and Niedenfuer, who saved Game 1 for Valenzuela, came in to pitch. "It was a tough one to lose," Dodgers Manager Tom Lasorda said. "Fernando did a super job, but we couldn't get the runs. And to get beat on a home run by 9 1 Andujar Hershiser (R) 21-12, 3.40 (R) 19-3, 2.03 Ozzie Smith? It's unbelievable." Niedenfuer got Willie McGee to foul out to third and ran the count to a ball and two strikes on Smith before the slightly built shortstop launched one into the second deck in right field, bringing his teammates rushing onto the field and eliciting a huge ovation from the 53,708 at Busch Memorial Stadium.

"I was real happy for the guys," Smith said of his thoughts as he rounded the bases in an unaccustomed home run trot. "We came out of spring training with nobody giving us a chance to do anything. We battled and we gave it our all. See Cardinals, Page 2C Tim Auociuled Pr Ozzie Smith flies through the air after his ninth-Inning home run ended Game 5 of the NL playoffs may fire up opponents urman ra nkmg BY ABE HARDESTY i JhrNtu sports ttaft ETSU last weekend. With its four-game winning streak, Furman looms as a favorite against the Buccaneers (0-4-1).

But injuries at key positions, and his team's lack of success against option-oriented teams this season, made Sheridan sound cautious Monday. Against ETSU, the Paladins face an option-oriented offense for the third time this season. In its first two option tests, Furman yielded 31 points to South Carolina State and 24 to Newberry. "Our first two experiences against the option give us a lot of respect for their offense," Sheridan said of the Buccaneers. "We're gonna have to play a whole lot better on defense than we did in our first two games." The ETSU attack is triggered by jun-' ior quarterback Keith Harris, a Greenville native and Mann High product.

It is See Furman, Page 2C Furman's win, combined with Appalachian State's 25-0 triumph over UT-Chat-tanooga, left the Paladins and the Mountaineers with the only perfect records (both 2-0) in league play. Furman's league title hopes hinge on games with ETSU Saturday, Appalachian next week, and November meetings with The Citadel and UT-Chattanoo- ga- After a non-league game with James Madison this weekend, Appalachian faces five straight conference foes Furman, VMI, Western Carolina, Marshall and East Tennessee. By playing seven league games, one more than Furman, ASU could win the conference title by losing to Furman but winning its last four league games unless Furman finishes unbeaten in the conference. Marshall, Western Carolina and Chattanooga all wear one league loss. VMI, the only conference team that does not face Furman, is 1-0-1 after slipping past How good is Furman? Last weekend, it overwhelmed the country's seventh-rated I-AA team.

Last month, it cruised past Atlantic Coast Conference member North Carolina State a team that has since played close games with Maryland and Pitt. On Monday, the NCAA's weekly panel of voters labeled it the No. 5 team among I-AA powers. Although pleased with his most recent win, which gave Furman a 5-1 start for the third straight year, Paladin coach Dick Sheridan isn't all that charmed by the ranking. "It's great to be up there at the end of the season, but right now it hurts you.

It gives the opponent a lot of I know that Marshall's ranking seemed to get our guys fired up." Sheridan's primary goal is a Southern Conference title. If that comes, the Paladins will have a spot in the I-AA playoffs regarldess of their ranking. Foster record books on the West Coast we have here, and somebody might be mean enough to print this. Only seven times in the last 30 years has a team that won the first two games of a four-of-seven post-season series then turned around and lost the series. The Dodgers, alas, have been in all but two of those.

Three times the Dodgers lost the first two, then came back. Two times they won the first two, then faded. The reason for bringing this up now, of course, is that once upon a time in this joust with the Cardinals, LA led 2-0 in games. At precisely 6:47 p.m. Monday, they trailed 2-3 in games.

That raises the question of whether you go for the momentum theory or the home team pattern. Winning three in a row gives St. Louis momentum. But the fact remains that in their series, the home team has not yet lost a game. And whatever there is left will be played in Los Angeles.

Take the Toronto-Kansas City series into account, and you find that the combined home teams have won nine out of ten games since this year's playoffs began. Sax a partial goat? All games don't have to have a goat, but Dodgers second baseman Steve Sax may feel a little like one after Monday's loss to the Cardinals. In the seventh inning, Sax was at bat with teammates on first and second and no one out. The next batter would be Fernando Valenzuela, the best hitting pitcher the Dodgers have. Sax went up with orders to bunt one of Todd Worrell's 94 or 95 miles per hour pitches.

But he was the first batter Worrell had faced, and the count went to three balls and no strikes. Then, probably, oh orders not to swing, he took a called strike. But the next one was also a strike that he let go instead of bunting. And then he missed the next pitch. If the Cardinals finish off the Dodgers in LA, the Cardinals will call Smith's homer maybe the biggest play in the series.

The Dodgers might look back to Sax's inability to move his two teammates another base. Because Valenzuela then hit a ball back to Worrell so hard he dropped it, and even Valenzuela almost made it to first. Dodgers catcher Mike Sciosia surely could have made it home from third to give the Dodgers a 3-2 lead. Instead, they got nothing, then or later, except a nudge against their backs, which they knew without looking was the wall. A St.

Louis lecture It was reminiscent of a situation Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda described some time back. Ironically, it happened in St. Louis. Sax is known for his bad throwing. His 30 errors in 1983 were more than any other second baseman in the league made.

And the majority were on that short, simple throw from second. Lasorda said that one night in St. Louis's Busch Stadium he took a walk into the outfield with Sax. "I asked him, 'How many people among all the millions in the United States can hit better than you can? Not many. And Steve said, 'Right'.

'How many of those people out there can run bases as well as you? Not many. And he said, 'Right. "Then I said, 'How many people out there can throw the ball from second base to first? Just about anybody. Right? A woman can throw the damn ball from second to "So," concluded Lasorda, "We'll see what happens." What happened is Sax cut his errors by 30 percent in '84. Now Lasorda must be tempted to take Sax for a walk in some outfield and ask him all those questions again, and then have Bella Abzug or Phyllis Diller show him about bunting.

A regular major league baseball player ought to be able to stick a piece of specially designed, autographed lumber in front of a baseball and bunt it. Or he ought to be making a lot less than $330,000 a year. If Furman fails to win the league championship, those ratings would suddenly become most important: the poll on Nov. 23 will largely determine the six at-large bids to the 12-team event. As he discussed a 34-3 victory, which knocked the previously-unbeaten Herd to 16th in that poll, Sheridan expressed surprise at the wide margin.

But how good is Marshall? "I just don't know," answered Sheridan. "It raises questions about I hope they are one of the top teams in the country, but they weren't Saturday." Clinton ranked No. 1 in AAA I-AA poll The Top 20 teams in the NCAA's I-AA poll with record, first-place votes and total points. 1. Richmond (3) 6-0-0 79 2.

Grambling (1) 5-0-0 77 3. M. Tenn. 5-0-0 71 4 ldaho 5-1-0 54 5-Furman 5-1-0 66 6Miss. Valley 5-0-0 56 7.

Nevada-Reno 5-1-0 54 8. La.Tech 5-1-0 51 (tie)N. Iowa 5-1-0 51 1Q.Ga. South. 5-1-0 38 11 State 6-1-0 37 12.

4-2-0 34 13. MurraySt. 4-1-1 30 (tie)NE La. 4-1-0 30 15-SWMo. 4-1-1 25 16.

Marshall 5-1-1 20 17. E.Wash. 5-1-0 16 18Akron 4-2-0 7 19.App. State 3-2-0 5 (tie) W. Carol.

3-2-1 5 (tie) Southern 4-1-0 5 (tie) Ark. St. 3-3-0 5 (tie) Colgate 4-1-0 5 (tie) Delaware 4-2-0 5 Others receiving votes: New Hampshire. High school poll CLASS AAAA School (No. 1 votes) Pts W-L 1 Greenwood (5) 74 6-0 2 Berkeley (1) 66 6-0 3 Summerville(l) 62 5-1 4 Conway 53 6-0 5 Spartanburo(l) 52 5-1 6 Orangeburg 46 6-0 7 Stratford 29 6-0 8 Gaffney 28 6-0 9 Dorman 12 5-1 10 Hillcrest, Dalzell 10 5-1 CLASS AAA 1 Clinton (4) 75 5-1 2 Myrtle Beach (2) 67 5-1 3 Newberry (1) 65 6-0 4 Thurmond (1) 59 6-0 5 Camden 44 5-1 6 Daniel 39 6-0 7 Beaufort 27 4-1 8 Carolina 26 6-0 9 Seneca 13 5-1 10 York 10 4-2 CLASS AA 1 Woodruff (8) 80 6-0 2 Pageland Central 72 6-0 3 Blacksburg 55 6-0 4 Barnwell 54 6-0 5 St.

John's, John's Is. 36 5-1 6 AAld-Carolina 35 5-1 7 Chesterfield 34 6-0 8 Silver Bluff 26 5-1 9 North Myrtle Beach ..25 5-1 10 Hampton 7 4-2 CLASS A 1 East Clarendon (8) ....80 6-0 2 Lake View 68 6-0 3 Sprlng-Monetta 60 5-1 4 Blackville-Hilda 49 5-2 5 Timmonsville 42 6-0 6 Porter-Gaud 37 6-0 7 Aynor 30 5-1 8 Cross 29 6-0 9 Jonesville 22 5-1 10 Macedonia 10 5-1 Paladins climb to fifth spot Staff report In the wake of its most impressive 1985 performance, Furman's football team made a significant climb in the NCAA Division I-AA rankings Monday. Paladins, surprisingly easy 34-3 winners over Marshall last weekend, rose from ninth to fifth in the NCAA's official weekly poll. Furman accumulated 66 voting points from the four-man panel, which selects the I-AA playoff field late next month. The weekly rankings following the Nov.

23 games will largely determine those playoff bids. Richmond, Grambling and Middle Tennessee all with perfect records hold the top three positions in the latest poll. Idaho, at 5-1, is No. 4. The No.

5 ranking is the highest of the season for Furman. The Thundering Herd's loss to Furman caused Marshall to move down to the 16th spot in the poll. Two other Southern Conference schools Appalachian State and Western Carolina are in a six-way tie for 19th. Following Furman in the top 10 are Mississippi Valley, Nevada-Reno, Louisiana Tech, Norther Iowa and Georgia Southern, coached by former Georgia coach Erk Russell. Staff, wire reports Clinton High's football team is ranked No.

1 in Class AAA and Newberry has climbed to No. 3 as they prepare for this week's Broad River AAA Region showdown. Clinton has won five straight games since losing its opener to Woodruff, which remains the unanimous No. 1 team in AA, according to votes by eight reporters who participated in the AP rankings. The No.

1 AAA rating was vacated when Camden lost 10-7 to Myrtle Beach in overtime Friday night. Myrtle Beach ranked second and Camden fifth in the newest rankings. There was also a change atop the Class A rankings, where Blackville-Hil-da's second defeat opened the door for East Clarendon. Greenwood remains No. 1 in AAAA, although the Eagles lost one of last week's six first-place votes following their 20-13 victory over Irmo.

Berkeley, Summer-ville and Spartanburg each received a first-place vote this week. Clinton received four of eight first-place votes and 75 of a possible 80 points in the AAA race. Clinton had dominated the AAA polls in the 1970s but had not been ranked No. 1 See Clinton, Page 2C.