WINCHESTER--Virginia baseball signee Patrick Wingfield's first recollection of Charlottesville, the University of Virginia or anything having to do with the Cavaliers came when the 19-year-old played in a 12-year-olds tournament at Cove Creek Complex in the central Commonwealth educational center.

It was Wingfield's first chance to meet one Mr. John Grisham, the world-renowned novelist who is also one of the benefactors of the fast-rising Wahoo baseball program.

In any case, Wingfield, who embodies more than most what Mr. Jefferson had in mind when he first established a place to bring in the state's finest minds, brought two baseballs out to novelist Grisham who was at the complex for signage.

Not only did Grisham sign the balls for Wingfield, but the rising freshman at UVa., also recalls: "He was so nice; I remember he treated as well as all the grownups."

Wingfield, the 6-foot-1, 195-pound dominant athlete in the Northern Shenandoah Valley this school cycle at the Apple Capital's Handley High School, remembers that Grisham was running the tournament. He found him out on the dusty diamond, watering and landscaping the field. "He was doing it all by himself."

Now, the son of Randy and Sharon Wingfield of Winchester will return the favor. During the just-completed preps regular season, Wahoo batting coach Kevin McMullen took one look at the solidly built three-sport athlete when the Judges were visiting Brentsville in a Group AA Northern District baseball game, and immediately call head coach Brian O'Connor to say he had to have the guy.

And thus on a subsequent visit to the spanking newly renovated Virginia baseball facility, he committed and then signed with the Cavaliers. He becomes coach Eddie Simmons', and before him, coach Terry Shickles', fifth player to enroll at a major baseball school in recent years. Other Judges will, or have been, toiling for programs like Virginia, South Carolina, Clemson and local schools like Division II Shepherd University in West Virginia and Division III Shenandoah University in Wingfield's hometown.

Interestingly, Wingfield, who plans a career in engineering, never applied to Virginia, because he failed to believe early the university was interested in him. He had originally considered attending Virginia Tech, Richmond or William and Mary.

And he would have been toiling for one of those fine programs, had not McMullen been tipped to see his game at Brentsville.

He has been told by the Virginia staff that he could play anywhere but catcher, "I never caught," he said while taking a break from the holiday weekend's Ed Baker/Firecracker Invitational held annually in the city of 25,000 up I-81 North, just miles from the West Virginia border.

The tournament, named after the longtime assistant at James Wood High and the local Legion 21 Post teams, brings together 15 teams from as far away as California. It is composed of athletes up to 19 years of age, who play for Shepherd, Shenandoah, Virginia, VMI, Mary Washington and more, along with those who come from programs like Group AA state champion Tunstall, Double-A Final Four entry Sherando, Group AAA's Danville, Stafford, North Stafford, among others. One legion team from Maryland brought eight players currently on college rosters.

Wingfield, a Washington Post All-Metro second team selection, covering public and private schools from a 3-million population circulation area is currently a .326 hitting athlete for coach Scott Copenhaver's American Legion team. He is feared for his hitting (.425 this season at Handley, two home runs, 22 RBI) and glove, but he also his a stealth closer for both the Judges in Group AA and the legion team, which is the defending champ at the Ed Baker event.

He likely would have received more time on the mound--where he was 3-0 with two saves and a miniscule 0.22 ERA--had the Maroon and White team had more depth in the infield.

Even so, not only does Wingfield, with a 3.9 GPA and a 1230 SAT score, score well at Handley's Bridgeforth Field at the Jim Barnett Park or the legion's R. Charles Hott Field at James Wood High, he was a three-year starter as an all-district wide receiver and kicker (second team) for the Judges perennial state power football program.

In basketball, he filled a defensive niche for longtime Handley coach Tommy Dixon, "because Coach Dixon knew I didn't care about scoring."

Wingfield is that kind of guy. In a sports page world of "great this" and "awesome that," the soft-spoken Handley athlete is all that. He is the kind of guy not only would you welcome into your house to date your daughter, but recruit. In the 76-year history of one of the state of Virginia's most academically prestigious public schools (though it was founded on a private endowment), the Winchester shortstop can take his place with the city's favored sons--like Harry F. Byrd, Sr., who helped build Virginia in the 1950s; his son, Harry Jr., who was a national force after replacing his late father in the U.S. Senate, and Harry Jr.'s uncle Adm. Richard Byrd, one of the 20th Century's earliest arctic exployers.

Virginia's program may have just found out about him this spring, but it is a lock UVa. hardball fans will be talking about him in the years to come.

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The Ed Baker, which is organized entirely by a volunteer group which includes Baker, John Hawse, Legion coach and Handley assistant Scott Copenhaver, Mr. Lockhart and Tom Farrell, Sr., along with the many other fathers, mothers, and girlfrien who manage the all-day concession stands and ticket taker tents, continues Sunday with its final round. Winchester Post 21 is the top seed with a 4-0 record, and will take on the winner of the Denbigh vs. Danville quarterfinal round at 1 p.m. at James Wood's Hott Field.

The winner of the Winchester semi will then play for the championship at 4 p.m. at the same site off of U.S. 522 North. Its opponent will come from a list including Berkeley (W.Va.), Stafford, or Shippensburg, Pa.

Cost of the full day event is $5.

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The tournament is drawing media coverage from VirginiaPreps, WVSports.com, the Northern Virginia Daily of Strasburg, Va., the Journal of Martinsburg, W.Va., WVSPN from the Mountain State, the Danville Bee and the Winchester Star. Jimmy Dix, the Winchester baseball historian, and Greg Brill, longtime Star baseball writer and PA man, are also involved.

Some 25 scouts from regional college programs were invited, and those from Shepherd, West Virginia, Shenandoah, Potomac State (W.Va.) and VMI have been noted