Sitting in the dugout after practice, Jake Peeling looks nothing like the dominant pitcher who strolls to the mound, stakes claim to that 60 feet, 6 inches of real estate between him and the catcher and mows down opponents with his nasty slider. As the lights flicker at the KC and the stars begin to poke through the black-velvet sky, the Waynesboro senior looks every bit of 17 years old - nervous and innocent-eyed.

He leans forward and back as he thinks each question through. His hands fidget. He looks off into the distance when he ponders another question. And some questions, he just doesn't know the answer to.

Excuse him, please. He's in awe.

It's only been a few days since Peeling inked his John Hancock on a scholarship offer from Virginia Tech to become the first Little Giant baseball player to go to the Division-I level in seven years. (Josh Deavers was the last, heading to Radford after the 2000 season).

His youth shines through when he talks about it. Eyes open wide. His lips curl into a nervous smile. He fixes his purple cap with the gold "W" on it more times than anybody can count when he talks about his future.

Yep, nothing like when he's standing on his dirt hump of solitude in the middle of the diamond.

"No," he says, "it hasn't sunk in yet that I'm a top-notch high-school player."

Don't ask him where he ranks in the state. He doesn't pay attention to it.

He's not into the publicity.

"Not much," he says, pulling his cap off, fingering his hair underneath, then placing the cap back on. Straightening it twice before he moves his hands away. Satisfied.

Cocky kid

When he takes to the hump, Jake Peeling is cocky.

"He needs to be out there," says his coach, Jim Critzer. "He owns it. It's real estate."

And it's all his.

"That's all I see out there," Jake says. "It's just me and the catcher. I don't see anything, I don't hear anything. I got 60 feet, 6 inches to the plate."

That's all he thinks about.

"I can't control anything out in the field behind me."

Jake wishes he could, but he didn't have to when he tossed his first, and only, varsity no-hitter last year against Broadway.

"That was huge," he says, flashing his childlike smile, his eyes darting back and forth like he's remembering each pitch of his crowning achievement.

"It was the most exciting thing in my life."

Breaking all of baseball's unwritten rules, his teammates didn't leave him alone in the dugout. Nobody whispered his no-no bid among themselves.

The Little Giants let Jake know in the sixth inning what was going on.

"I think Jay Thompson said something," he recalls. "They were just trying to keep me relaxed, I guess."

He sat in the dugout trying to act like he wasn't on the cusp of something special.

"I just didn't want to mess it up."

Afterward, his team met him on the mound with high-fives and pats on the back, his father was the first to greet him as he left the field.

"How many people can say they threw a no-hitter?" he asks. "On varsity?"

Blacksburg bound

Dave Turgeon, associate head coach and pitching coach for Virginia Tech, is tight-lipped when it comes to how the Hokies got word of Jake Peeling.

"We have contacts all around the state that we're wired into," Turgeon says. "We heard about [Jake] and followed up on him."

No hints on the Hokies' inside track. No word on who sent the tape or who put in a call to Blacksburg.

("I'm just an old country boy that's stubborn as hell," Critzer says when asked if he had something to do with Jake getting noticed. "I don't have the clout some other coaches have.")

But ask Turgeon what attracted the Hokies to Jake, and locked lips aren't a problem. Turgeon, who came to the Hokies last summer as the first hire under new head coach Pete Hughes, sees something in Jake that makes his mouth water like Pavlov's Pitching Coach.

"He's a kid that has raw arm strength and can spin a breaking ball," he says. "And he threw strikes. That's a good combination."

Jake's slider, which Waynesboro catcher Brandon Clark calls his toughest pitch, hit 82 this fall on a radar gun. Up at Harrisonburg this season, it topped out at 79. His fastball has broken the 90-mph barrier, hitting 92.

"Sometimes it feels like it could break my hand," Clark says.

Jake's fastball may feel like it could break bones through the soft leather of a catcher's mitt, but his earned run average is of daisy-cutter proportions, sitting low at 1.96. Opponents don't have an easy time hitting him, his slider-fastball combo holding batters to a famine-inducing .178 over his four starts.

His pitching has lifted Waynesboro to an 11-1 record in the tough-as-nails Valley District, and a first-place tie with Turner Ashby.

"He competes very well," Turgeon says. "And we can polish him up."

That's something Critzer has seen in his star pitcher since he thrust a then-freshman Jake onto the mound against much-feared Turner Ashby.

Since that day four years ago, Critzer has watched the skinny kid grow into an intimidating force.

Both his mind and arm strike fear in opponents.

"Without a doubt in my mind," Critzer says, "Jake Peeling is the best pitcher in the Valley District this year. Period."

Growth spurt

Jake Peeling is the first to tell anybody that sure, he dreamed of playing college ball on the Division-I level, but getting there was something he didn't expect - at least not until this year.

"I got bigger," he says, fiddling with his cap, "and stronger."

In the past year, Jake added 6 to 7 mph to his fastball. Even his father, Mitch Peeling, a Division I pitcher at West Chester University and coach at Southern Mississippi (one of the schools that was trying to lure Peeling out of state), didn't think it was possible until this season.

"Then we started getting phone calls," Mitch says.

With his cell phone ringing, Mitch was talking on his phone during his commute to his job in Frederick County. He says both he and Jake would then sit down and go over the phone calls.

"Where are you going to get the best education?" he would ask Jake. And which school had the best baseball program?

"I hope he's not overwhelmed," Mitch says. "Because it can get a little overwhelming. We were getting two to three calls a night."

It was a different experience for Jake.

"It's ACC baseball," he says of his decision to go with Virginia Tech. "It's top in the nation. Them, then the [Southeastern Conference]."

As far as Critzer is concerned, there's not too much more he can do for Peeling.

"Jake needs someone else," he says. "I've gone as far as I can with him."

Peeling needs someone on a higher level to take over. Refine the mechanics. Smooth out the rough edges. Make him work harder. He also needs to take his licks.

"We want a competitor," Turgeon says, "and regardless of the outcome or result, will come after hitters.

"His mettle will get tested."

As proud a grandfather could possibly be

Jake Peeling's catcher, Clark, is shagging balls in the outfield. Lead-off hitter James Lucas is slapping on a batting helmet and heading to the cage for extra swipes at the ball. Jake strolls out to the mound, glove on and smiling.

"I write the number 17 in the dirt with my shoe," he says.

That's baseball for you - a game filled to the brim with superstitious lore.

"Then I look up and point to the sky," he says.

That's for his grandfather; he called him "peepaw." Residents of Waynesboro knew him as Shirley Kiger - former superintendent of the city's schools who passed away a little less than two years ago.

"They were close," Mitch Peeling says.

Jake points to a spot on top of the hill down the first-base line. That's where peepaw would sit in a lawn chair to watch the Little Giants.

"I think he would probably be as proud a grandfather could possibly be," Mitch says. "They were always close."

Kiger, a staunch University of Virginia man, probably wouldn't have any problems with his grandson donning the maroon and burnt orange.

"Yep, he'd be proud," Mitch says. "Even as a U.Va. man."

Lucas is done taking his extra whacks and Clark trots in from the outfield after a few extra shags.

Peeling fixes his hat one last time and rubs his hands on his knees as he rocks on the bench.

"I'm in awe, actually," he says.

Critzer understands Jake's feeling. "Put yourself in those shoes he's in right now," Critzer says, "and you'd be awe-struck too."

Jake understands that, yes, this is just one step - albeit a step most players don't even step on - to get to what he really wants.

"I plan on being [at Tech] all four years," he says. "Work hard and get to the next level. That's the goal. It's every kid's dream to get to the majors and pitch in front of thousands of people."

Looking grateful to be done talking about his future, Jake takes his cap off one last time and runs his hand over his hair before exiting the dugout and walking to his car.

"No doubt in my mind he's going to play for a Major League team someday," Critzer says. "First, he's going to end up a weekend starter for a D-I school. And when you're a weekend starter, then you got the stuff, baby.

"And Jake has the stuff."

(reprinted with permission)

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