Sun-News from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina • 9

The Sun fleupCx ports Of the times 1-B Sunday Chants rally to defeat High Point Wilfrid Binette SIDRTS EDITOR By WILFRID BINETTE Sports Editor BLUEFIELD WVa Coastal Carolina Collep Chanticleers all but given up with two out in the ninth inning and trailing 7-4 rallied for five runs to defeat the High Point Panthers 9-7 and force another game apinst High Point to decide the region championship here Sunday afternoon The Chants tied the score on a long double by Tom Romono and pulled out the victory when Doug Sabbagh blasted a 400-foot plus homer over the center field fence Coastal reliever Steve "Ice Man" Smith pitching for the second time in two days picked up the victory He got Neal Van Nash to line into a game-ending double play Coastal will take a 42-6 overall record into Sunday afternoon's championship contest The game will begin at 1:30 pm The Chants made It to the Saturday night pme by defeating West Virginia State 5-4 in Saturday's first game Coastal appeared to score two runs In the fourth Inning when Walt Parmenter opened the Inning with a long double to right and Mike Burden belted a shot over the left field fence sane 360 feet away However the Panthers appealed a play at first base and Burden wu called out for not touching first base wiping out the two runs Coastal's starter Clint Harvey then walked the first two Panthers in the bottom of the fourth and Fred Poole put down a bunt down the third base line Hie throw perfect throw to the plate by Gilmore kept the Panthers from scoring a fifth run Dan Wilbur opened the inning with a single and went to second on Gerald Culler's sacrifice Jack Kennedy singled to center but Gilmore fired a perfect strike to the plate to retire the sliding Wilbur Kennedy went to second on the throw and scored on Van pop single to right field The Panthers made it 6-0 in the sixth inning when Ken Carter and Garbadino walked and Tim Reid followed with a long triple off the right field wall Coastal scored three runs in the seventh inning on only two hits Doug Sabbagh led off with a walk and me out later Hendrick walked Sabbagh Continued on Page LB to third trying to force out Jack Kennedy wu late and all runners were ufe With the bases loaded Ken Carter filed to short right field and Coastal's Tom Romano dropped the ball for an error sending Kennedy home Mike Pisano then filed to centerfleld and Gary Gilmore caught the ball and fired it to the plate to nab the sliding Nean Van Ash for a double play Joe Garbadino then lofted a fly ball to left field which dropped for a single driving in Poole and Carter scored when the throw to the plate went to the dugout area for an error The Panthers therefore scored three runs on only one hit and two Coutal errors The Panthers scored another run in the fifth inning to take a 4-0 lead and only a sfi 'mM fU SivT-ic Romano eyes draft BLUEFIELD Last year at this time Coastal CaroUna'i Tom Romano waa one of the hottest pro prospects In District 6 baseball He led the entire district in home runs with 19 and he was hitting 325 on the season But only a sophomore he was not eligible for the draft by major league scouts The rale says no college player can be drafted until after he has completed his junior year So Romano who hit 325 as a freshman two years ago was dead set on putting together his best season ever this year He followed his sophomore season at Coutal by playing in the Valley League for college players in New Market Va where he led the league with 14 homers drove in 42 runs and batted over 300 in only 39 games "That was against some mighty tough competition Tommy had one heck of a season in the Valley League lut year" uid teammate Clint Harvey here Friday night Romano was ready This was going to be his year But he was stricken with a back injury which kept him out of the lineup for the first month of the season As Coastal went into the third-round game against West Virginia State here Saturday night Romano had played in only 27 of the Chants' 48 games of which won 40 Still he led the Chants in home runs with nine and drove in 25 runs in those 27 games His batting average wu closer to the 375 mark than it wu to the 300 mark and that caused Romano some concern know I can hit over 300 if I play every day but the problem with me this year is that when I got in the lineup I wanted to play every day to get going good and we played only two or three times a week That hurt me and I really get going the way I wu hoping I would know I've been looked at (fey the scouts) a lot this year but playing the way we did with only two three or four games a week in some stretches didn't help me I didn't produce the way I know I can and now I really know what my chances of getting drafted explained the 5-10 155-pound Juniors from Syracuse NY I jja V' dli Jk-i-rr issaiS iWigtas Bid claims spectacular Preakness BALTIMORE (AP) "Fantastic!" a fan shouted at Tom Meyerfaoff after the Preakneu Saturday Replied Meyerhoff: "It fantastic It was spectacular" Indeed it was Spectacular Bid simply ran away from four three-year-old rivals at Pimlico and added a victory in the $235300 Preakneu to his triumph in the Kentucky Derby He did it with the second-fastest clocking in the 104-year history of the race completing the mile and three-sixteenths in 1:54 1-5 Hut was just a fifth of a second off the track and stakes record set by Canonero II in 1971 "He did it all" said trainer Bud Delp after watching Bid brat Golden Act by 5Vfa lengths "He's a great horse I've been saying it all along Now you fellows can say it" he told the news media "The race wu over at the half-mile post" Jockey Ronnie Franklin had Spectacular Bid at high gear with a half mile to go and he took the lead from General Assembly entering the final turn Franklin the 19-year-old who had been criticized for some of his rides on Bid kept the colt outside aU the way Delp uid he thought Angel Cordero on Screen King wanted Franklin to come iuide he did In the trouble-plagued Florida Derby: When asked what would have happened if Franklin had gone inside Delp supped a dumb question I don't talk to dummies" Franklin who thought Bid could have broken the record if he had been pushed in the stretch said Screen King forced him wide on the turn and in the backs tretch But Cordero uid Bid came in on Screen King on the backstretch and "hit me hard enough to cut up my hone" Screen King and Cordero helped delay Spectacular Bid's victory from becoming official The stewards held an inquiry concerning Screen King and Flying Paster in the upper stretch but decided to let the order of finish stand That wu Screen King followed by Flying Puter and General Assembly the son of Secretariat who had been runner-up in the Derby The four colts who chased Spectacular Bid Saturday all had been beaten by him in the Derby Two or three of them might try him again in the Belmont Stakes when Spectacular Bid tries to become thoroughbred racing's third Triple Crown winner in three years Franklin and Delp don't care who rides against him in the Belmont "We're a cinch for the Triple Crown" uid the confident Franklin The Bid's 12th straight victory before a crowd of 72607 made him the sport's 24th millionaire He earned $165300 to boost his career bankroll to $1123587 on a record of 14 wins end a second in 16 starts Spectacular Bid's margin of victory was five lengths over Golden Act the Derby third-place finisher who wu four lengths in front of Screen King Flying Paster was another ita lengths back Spectacular Bid owned by Harry Tereu and Tom Meyerhoff paid $220 and $220 It equaled the lowest Everyone discussing BALTIMORE (AP) -Sandy Hawley who finished aboard Golden Act four lengths behind Spectacular Bid in the Preakneu Saturday uid he doesn't know if he and his horse can win against the gray son of Bold Winner in the final race of the Triple Crown but they'll be running all the same "He ran a big race" Hawley uid of his mount "He can run all day and he does have a shot at beating Bid: but you can't take anything away from The Bid" Don Pierce who broke fast with Flying Paster but finished fourth said his hone acted better in the Preakness than in the Kentucky Derby "W'e had no trouble with the track but I don't know if we can beat The Bid "He (Flying Puter) ran better today but I think he can do even better" the 42-year-old Jockey uid Pierce who was riding in his first Preakneu uid the Kentucky Derby ami the shipping of Flying Puter to Baltimore "took a lot out of him Still I think he is better than he showed and we were coming back at the end I have no idea if we're going to New York" to the Belmont Angel Cordero Jr who rode Screen King for third place said his horse ran well but "got cut all Winning jockey Ronnie Franklin had uid after the race that Cordero carried him out and accused Cordero of unsportsmanlike conduct "I was four lengths in front of uid Cordero who is one of five jockeys to top $5 million in earnings in one season "How could I carry him out? Bid came in on me when he went by He hit me hard enough to cut my horse" Franklin later admitted that Cordero was "race riding doing his job" Strong defensively Romano is regarded one of the best defensive outfielders in the district He has good speed and a strong throwing arm And to those who might think his size might keep him from hitting the ball out of the park all they need to do is see him hit a few shots like he did in Florence aplnst Francis Marion and they'll be convinced he has all the power he needs to play pro ball In that big pme against Francis Marion he powered one shot over the dead center field fence more than 400 feet away and later hit a lined shot over the 365-foot sip in left field Romano has me more year to at Coutal but he uid he wants to play pro ball so badly that if he gets drafted he will pass up his senior year Romano says he doesn't have a favorite team or a baseball idol That's understandable aince he play baseball until he came to Coutal Carolina "I was in gymnastics in high school and that's all I concentrated on I never played high school Little League or American Legion baseball "I didn't start palying baseball until I came to Coastal I was a good friend of former Coutal pitcher Joe Stethers and he talked me into coming to Coutal I tried it and it's been a very enjoyable thr years" he uid Stethers is now with the Cwago Cubs orpniution playing in the Cubs' minor league system Romano uid he hasn't heard from him in more than a year Romano is convinced this year's Coastal Carolina team is the best Coutal team he hu played on in three years He said the tram has more depth more pitching and although this year's team does not have what he called "the killer instinct" it is stronger than last year's squad which won the Region 7 Tournament here and earned a trip to the NAIA World Series All alone Spectacular Bid with jockey Ronnie ran away from the field with the second franklin in the irons crosses the finish line fastest clocking in the 104-year history of at Pimplico Race Track in Baltimore Md the race Golden Act finished second (AP) Saturday to win the Preakneu Stakes Bid Miami nips Tigers Citadel eliminated Preakneu payoff set by Citation in 1948 Golden Act owned by William Oldknow and Robert Phipps paid $580 There was no show betting The exacts of Spectacular Bid and Golden Act paid $1580 Flying Puter ridden by Don Pierce and Derby runner-up General Assembly ridden by Laffit Pincay Jr broke quickly out of the gate and ran a pair down the stretch the first time and Into the backstretch General Assembly held a narrow lead General Assembly was still in front and Flying Paster was second with about a half-mile to go But Franklin had Spectacular Bid moving on the outside and he charged into the lead shortly after entering the turn The race was over and the crowd sensed It cheering Bid's name It wu sort of a hometown victory because the Meyerhoffs Franklin and trainer Bud Delp are aU Marylanders Bid was born in Kentucky but he made and won the first two starts of his career at Pimlico The roar increased Spectacular Bid shot Coattased on Page LB Coastal not same without Billingsly By WILFRID BINETTE Sports Editor BLUEFIELD Va gone He hu graduated but the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers certainly have not forgotten him They wish he could be around to give them a helping hand again this year Three Chants talked Friday night about how much former Coastal outfielder Steve Billingsly meant to the team last year and in previous years one can ever fill his shoes at Coastal He could do it all offensively defensively on the bench and all" uid Koon Hendrick was not only a great baseball player but he also meant so much to the team in the way of a team leader He could get the team stirred up and he really fired up this tram He wu the leader and no one will ever fill his shoes "With Steve on base last yur the pitchers had to concentrate more on pitching to me and Tom (Romano) and they didn't walk us as many times They had to give the good pitches to hit and that's why we got so many things done It's a lot different this year without uid Hendrick Romano agreed "Cooter could do It all He could run field hit and he kept this team ping He was the leader and everyone looked up to him And like Koon said with Cooter on the bases the pitchers couldn't afford to walk us so they gave better pitches to hit It han't been the same without him this season" Billingsly wu given a shot with the Atlanta Braves but was one of the last players cut from the minor league roster this spring Billingsly was given his walking papers by Hank Aaron the one in charge of the minor leagues for the Braves Koon wants a shot Charles "Koon" Hendrick is a 5-9 160-pound senior shorts top for the Chants The Conway product has gone pme after pme doing his job keeping his head up and has turned out to be one of the steadiest players on the team Koon played the outfield and second haw as a freshman and hu been the starting shortstop the lut three years As a freshman he hit 296 He hit 324 a sophomore 359 as a Junior and 339 this year Koon uid Friday night been a lifelong dream of his to some day play professional baseball And with the kind of hitting statistics he's got and the kind of defensive play he is capable of making he would have to be considered a pro prospect When asked if he thought he might pt drafted by the pros this year Koon uid he had no idea but certainly would love It "I'd give it my best he uid About that time Coutal first baseman Mike Burden yelled acrou the table and told Hendrick at home on June 6 and don't get too far from the June 6 happens to be the first day of the baseball draft and Burden is convinced Hendrick should be given a shot at pro ball Hendrick is not one to around telling everyone about his lofty batting average or the great fielding plays he makes He's a pod solid player who does his job day in and day out He can hit the long ball and he can spray the ball around hitting it through the holes to move runners up cm the bases He also has good speed on the basepaths and is one of the leading base stealers on the Coastal team But one of Hendrick's biggest pluses has to be his ability to field the ball from either side and to make the long throw He has one of the best throwing arms In the Region 7 Tournament here Koon Is not one to say much He Just goes out and gets the Job done He lets his bat and his fielding plays do the talking And believe me he's convinced a lot of people he can (day minor league ball somewhere come this summer Clemson came back in the sixth as Neil Simons led off with a walk and moved to third on Tim Teufel's single Tony Masone whiffed with Teufel stealing second Greg Guin walked to load the bases and Bill Schroeder followed with a sacrifice fly Robert Bonnette walked but Robbie Allen popped out to shallow right to end the threat The Tigers who batted 312 as a tram during the regular season rallied in the ninth but couldn't score After Heaton walked Allen to lead off Rajsich replaced him Pinch-hitter Bill Castelli singled and David Buffamoyer sacrificed the runners to second and third After Simons grounded out Teufel walked to load the bases But Rajsich got Masone to ground to third for the pme-ending face out Miami improved its record to 54-9 while Clemson fell to 39-14 The Tigers defeated Georgia Southern 8-4 Friday night Aguayo pounded a three-run double in the first inning then scored Chip Gray with a single in the seventh for Georgia Southern in the first pme Dave Howard followed in the seventh with another run-producing single Paul Kilimonis (LI) went the distance for Georgia Southern while Mike Pendleton (8-4) took the loss fa The Citadel The loss eliminated The Citadel from the double-elimination tournament CORAL GABLES Fla (AP) Alex DeJesus stroked a two-run single in the first inning and fireballer Neal Heaton with ninth-inning relief help from Rob Rajsich made it stand the Miami Hurricanes edged Clemson LI Saturday night to move into the finals of the NCAA Atlantic Regional tournament The host Hurricanes ranked second in a national collegiate baseball poll will play Sunday evening against the winner of the Clemson-Georgia Southern loser's bracket final In an earlier pme Saturday Georgia Southern catcher Carmelo Aguayo drove in four runs to lead a 5-3 victory over The Citadel Heaton an 18-year-old left-hander wu the first player chosen in January's major league baseball draft but enrolled at Miami after his negotiations with the New York Meta fell through Heaton (LI) scattered eight hits and walked four while striking out six Clemson batters Brian Snyder (7-4) a junior lefthander pve the Hurricanes only -three hits However left fielder Steve Youngman committed a costly error in the bottom of the first Inning to help the Hurricanes to their two runs Tony Brewer stroked a two-out single for Miami and Randy Guerra lined to Youngman who dropped the ball for a two-base error DeJesus followed with a single.