Abbeville Meridional from Abbeville, Louisiana • 10

Pago 10, Abbeville Meridional, Thursday. June 27, 1991 sponis Methvin, Ford power Post 29'ers past Berwick, 6-1 A V- outing was a fifth inning solo home run by Brian Sharpe. Abbeville scored the tying and eventual game winning runs in the bottom of the fifth. Steve Kelly singled in Kendall Theall and Jude Richard coaxed a base on balls to force in Clay Young. Abbeville loaded the bases in the sixth when Coby Sonnier walked and Theall and Young hit subsequent singles to set up Ford's heroics.

"After winning like we did, I know we can play with anyone in the district, and maybe anyone in the state," said an elated Faulk. "Thursday is a big game for us," Faulk continued. "If we can win.it will secure second place for us. We will try to win next week's road games which will be tough so we don't have to play in the wild card playoffs. "I think we are peaking at the right time.

This was our best game of the commented Faulk. 4 perfect," said Ford. "Coach Jesse told me to relax at the plate. I did and the ball just went out." We moved him (Ford) to the third position in the line up. He's always been a lead off man, but it was a gamble that luckily paid off," said Faulk who shuffled the line up in hopes of producing more offense.

Thanks to Ford, Methvin finally picked up his first district win. The North Vermilion senior's record is now 1-2 in district, but his record is misleading. Both of his losses are one run losses (5-4 to New Iberia and 2-1 to Berwick) in which Methvin had phenomi-nal outings. With a victory to his credit, two complete games and a dazzling 2.20 ERA, Methvin has established himself as one of the premier pitchers in Third District Central. "I think he is the best pitcher in the district right now," declared Faulk.

The only blemish on Methvin's cutive complete game. The intimidating righthander's other marathon performance ended in disappointment with a 2-1 loss at Berwick. "I was very determined to win tonight because of what hnppened the last time we played," explained Methvin. "I had more stuff on my fastball, and I think that was the difference tonight." "I've never seen him (Methvin) that pumped up," said Jesse Faulk. Anthony Ford made sure Methvin's efforts did not go to waste this game.

The centerfiel-der, who is known for his speed and defense, turned on a 2-1 fastball offered by Berwick reliever Jeff Leleux and powered it over the rightfield wall for his first homer of the season and only the second dinger for the 29'ers this season. "It was straight down the middle and everything was By Randy Barras The determination and enthusiasm that had been absent this season from the Abbeville American Legion baseball team, was clearly evident when the 29'ers knocked off Berwick, 6-1, Tuesday night. Ian Methvin dominated the game on the mound for Abbeville, and Anthony Ford insured the victory with a grand slam home run in the bottom of the sixth inning. The victory gave Abbeville a share of first place in the district. Both Abbeville and Berwick were 3-2 in loop play after Tuesday-night's contest.

Next action for the 29'ors is Thursday night at Thenot Field against New Iberia at 7:00. Methvin dismantled the Berwick line up striking out a grand total of 13 batters, walking only four and allowing only four hits over seven innings. It was Methvin's second conse Ian Methvin Anthony Ford -n v. School board approves hiring Hinckley, Indest Landry returns home with shoulder injury 1 By Chris Rosa Abbeville's Howard Landry depends on his arm for his chosen profession. Landry, a 1985 Abbeville High graduate, is going through what most professional athletes hope will never happen.

An injury. Last month Landry returned to Abbeville to undergo therapy on his pitching shoulder. The Abbeville native began feeling a sharp pain in his shoulder two weeks before he left for spring training in February. Landry reported to Winter Haven, Florida for the Boston Red Sox's Class A team. Landry only felt pain when he attempted to throw his 88 mile-per-hour fastball.

He visted the team physician who diagnosed it as shoul-dertendonitis which is normal for pitchers. He returned to the same doctor with the pain a few weeks later. Again he said it was tendonitis. During spring training Landry was unable to pitch because of pain, so he just ran to keep in the shape. He remained in Florida during the extended springtrain-ing for a month and a half while he underwent treatment.

After that ended the minor league's team trainer advised Landry to seek advice from a doctor back home. Landry returned to Abbeville and contacted his old friend Iee Leonard who's USL's team physician. Leonard's specializes in sport injuries. Leonard gave Landry an MRI, which better accomplishes the same purpose as an X-ray, to see inside his shoulder. After the test Leonard diagnosed Landry as having a "hill sac deformity." It's a small deformity on top of the humerus bone which causes the Rhoulder to be loose in the ball and socket joint.

Leonard advised Landry to first try physical therapy for two months. If that didn't work, he would have to do orthroscopic surgery which could possibly keep Landry from ever pitching again. "I don't think about the idea that IU never pitch again," Landry said. "Right now I'm just trying to think positively. Ill keep going to therapy for two months and take it from there." Landry has not thrown a baseball for over six weeks and probably won't for another three or four.

Landry will know if the therapy is working in a couple of months when he throws a baseball since that's the only time his shoulder hurts. Landry's career threatening injury is the first since he began pitching. Landry signed with USL out of high school where he compiled a 2-0 record his freshman year and was mainly used in relief. USL sent him to Howard Junior College his sophomore year where he finished with an 11-3 record. That year he was drafted in the 25th round by the Oakland A's but opted to return to USL for his junior year.

While a junior at USL, he finished with an 11-8 record and was selected bv the Boston Red Sox in the 1 5th things. With him on the staff, it's kind of like the boy in the classroom with better and brighter kids. If you're with a lazy bunch, you kind of lower your standards and fit in. But if you're with an intelligent group of kids, you want to try harder and learn more. That's how I feel with Sam on the staff.

Now I have to be a sharper head coach." Coach Salt has been impressed with Indest from the first day he met him four weeks ago when he began learning Abbeville's play book before he even knew he had a job. Indest will coach the defensive backs while Hinckley will coach the running backs. "Brent has been around football all his life," Coach Salt said. "He understands the game. Being young doesn't bother me.

He knows more about the game than some people I know who have been around longer. He comes from a family who has been playing football for a long time." Indest, a 1983 Catholic High All -State quarterback, graduated from USL in 1 989. His first coaching job was this year where he coached the defensive ends and backs. "I'm looking forward to the change," Indest stated. "It's a move up in the coaching ranks.

One day I hope to be a head coach and this will give me the opportunity to work toward that. At Howard Landry round. In 1988 he was sent to Winter Haven in Class A and finished with a 1-4 record (5.34 ERA). In '89 Landry improved his record to 9-10 with a low ERA of 3.90. He was promoted to the Red Sox's highest Class A team in Lynchburg, Virgina.

There he completed the season with a 7-8 record and 4.50 ERA. This year Landry had plans of goingback to Lynchburg, but now his plans will have to be on hold until next year due to the injury. Chris Rosa Abbeville head football coach Nick Saltaformaggio is looking over the horizon and he likes what he sees. He sees a bright sun with clear skys in the future for his football program. That's how Coach Salt described last night after hearing about the approval by the school board to hire two new coaches, Sam Hinckley and Brent Indest.

In the past Salt said spring training has been like a stormy day but with his two new coaches it's going to be clear skys from now on. Hinckley resigned his head coaching job at Rayne High to accept his new position. Indest will transfer from Catholic High where he coached last year. "I'm looking forward to having both of them," Coach Salt said. "Sam brings many years of coaching to this staff.

While Brent has the knowledge to coach both offense and defense." Hinckley, a 1969 Abbeville High graduate, comes to Abbeville from Rayne where he served as head coach for three and a half years. Before Rayne he was the head coach at North Vermilion from 1980 until '88. He was responsible for getting North Vermilion's football program off the ground. "I left Rayne because the principal resigned and things were shaky," Hinckley said. "Things just didn't feel right.

They brought in a new guy, and I could see the writing on the wall. I thought it was time to move back home." Before accepting the head coaching job at North Vermilion, Hinckley was Kaplan's head coach from 1977-80. He was an assistant at Rayne from 74-77 and St. Martinville from 71-74. "With that kind of experience he's going to make me a better coach," Coach Salt said.

"He's already showing me some new Hornets make UNLV's Johnson No. 1 pick Nets. "I'm a long-range kind of person. It came down to looking for immediate help or someone for the future. We felt we needed a point guard to make the other players better." "They told me they wanted me right along," Anderson said.

"All I can do is go in with a great attitude. There's a lot of work ahead, but New Jersey has a piece of my heart now." Owens finally got the call with the No. 3 pick by Sacramento, which coveted Anderson because the Kings are already loaded with young forwards. best center available in Georgetown's 7-foot-2 Dikembe Mutombo. Despite not playing basketball until he was a senior in high school in Zaire, Mutombo averaged 15.2 points, 12.2 rebounds and 4.7 blocks as a senior for the Hoyas and was selected as the Big East's defensive player of the year last season.

Mutombo also has excellent running skills and stamina for a big man, and hell need them with the Nuggets, 20-62 last 6eason with the worst defense in the NBA. "I'm not really disappointed because it is a dream come true just to get to the NBA," Owens said. "Sacramento will be a different atmosphere from Syracuse, but I will make the best of it and make them happy they picked me." Jerry Reynolds, the Kings' player personnel director, said before the draft that if Anderson was not available, they would select Johnson or Owens and worry about the team's crowded forward situation before training camp starts. Denver did what was expected with the fourth pick, grabbing the Abbeville I can learn a whole lot more about football. I've been impressed with the athletes at Abbeville.

It looks like we have a good group of players. This year I feel we are going to be competitive with all the teams we play." Abbeville also has another new coach Johnny Tragmar who transferred from Kaplan High. "I'm not sure where he's going to coach," Coach Salt said. "I haven't seen him in over three weeks. I talked to him for 10 minutes and since then I haven't seen or heard from him.

He's not showing much interest in our football program." Capriati finally plays first-round at Wimbledon that were supposed to have been played since Monday and discussing ways to cram them in at NEW YORK (AP) Billy Owens was second in the hearts of the Charlotte Hornets and New Jersey Nets. He was third in the NBA draft on Wednesday night behind Larry Johnson and Kenny Anderson. Johnson was the No. 1 pick of the Hornets, winning out over Owens among the team's management because of the aggressive play he displayed at UNLV, which won the NCAA title in 1 990 and went undefeated in 1990-91 until losing to Duke in the Final Four. Hornets director of player personnel Allen Bristow said after Johnson's pick that the team leaders are now in agreement.

"Certainly, we'd all like to be united as one, and we feel like we are now," Bristow said. "He came up No. 1 in most of the categories that we were looking at, but the big thing about Larry Johnson is his competitiveness, and his leadership, and he's a winner. The thing that separates Larry from all the rest is that he's always been a winner." "I'm just happy it's all over," Johnson said. "I don't think it was important that I was No.

1 as it was that I go to Charlotte. I had heard all the speculation and all the rumors leading up to the draft. I think lean do forCharlot-te what I did for Vegas." Owens, from Syracuse, also was favored by New Jersey player personnel director Willis Reed and coach Bill Fitch, but the Nets' ownership wanted the flashy Anderson, believing the Georgia Tech sophomore point guard has a better chance to draw fans to the moribund Meadowlands Arena. Anderson was a high school hero in New York City. "A Kenny Anderson comes along only once every 10 years or so.

We looked at next year's draft and felt there was only one point guard, and there were at least three No. 3s (forwards)," said Joe Taub, a minority owner of the the first break in the weather. Players grew frustrated in their packed lounge, flopping on the floor as though waiting for a long-delayed midnight flight at Heathrow Airport. Even under normal conditions, Capriati is an impatient teen ager, serving as quickly as a ball machine. This time as she began the match at 6:50 p.m.

she set a frenetic pace, barely pausing WIMBLEDON, England (AP) Jennifer Capriati eagerly fled the backgammon and boredom of the locker room as the sky finally cleared over the Sea of Wimbledon. Rivulets of runoff rushed across the concourse. Fans stepped around puddles. Capriati just smiled happily as she skipped onto the dry court', in the stadium where moments before the tarp had been peeled away. The early evening sun cast a golden glow on the grass and stretched Capriati's shadow to twice her size.

But there was no time to admire the scene. Capriati had waited two days for this first-round match against Shaun Stafford and now was in a race to get it in while a roilinglay-er of charcoal clouds pushed toward them with the threat of more rain. A series of storms had already delayed play 614 hours, allowing only five matches to be completed of the 100 scheduled Wednesday. Officials were worrying about a backlog of nearly 150 matches between points, in a 20-minute opening set. A serving lapse in the second set she was broken twice slowed her down a bit, but sh wm ft I 6 Pi ii vMM was off the court in 58 minuteh with a 6 0, 7-5 victory.

It didn't matter that she had played on Court 1 in the half filled smaller stadium. She hjd Thibeaux. The middle row (left to right) are Patrick Sonnier, Carl Toups, Caleb Mayard, Eric Toups, Brennan Bernard, Rebecca Montz and Scott Bernard. The back row is Gary Landry, assitant coach, (left) Coach Tommy Toups (middle) and assitant coach Kevin Bernard (right). LEAGUE RUNNER-UPS The Meridional incorrectly identified the Athletics as league champions when in fact they were runner-ups in the 7-8 year-old league at Paiombo Field.

The runner-up team members on bottom row (left to right) are Joh-nathon Bodin, Drew Frederick, Justin Hebert, Blake Romero, Cody Landry, Toby Hargrave and Eddie been scheduled to open on Centn Court on Monday, the same trea sured place where she hat debuted before royalty and i packed house last year..