Photos by MATT GENTRY The Roanoke Times

Blacksburg High School's Joey Phillips gets a base hit against Pulaski on April 15. Phillips and Greg Juanarena (below), the Bruins' only four-year starters, are nearing the end of their high school careers.

Photos by MATT GENTRY The Roanoke Times

Blacksburg High School's Joey Phillips gets a base hit against Pulaski on April 15. Phillips and Greg Juanarena (below), the Bruins' only four-year starters, are nearing the end of their high school careers.

MATT GENTRY The Roanoke Times

Blacksburg catcher Greg Juanarena (front) and pitcher george Perkovich contest for a fly ball against Pulaski. Perkovich came up with the catch.

BLACKSBURG -- Joey Phillips and Greg Juanarena, Blacksburg High School baseball players, made their varsity debuts the same day and under less than ideal conditions.

Juanarena started at catcher and understandably was a little jittery. When the game ended he was just short of fearing for his life. Phillips, the second baseman, was nervous, too, but he began the game and his career with an oversized measure of confidence.

The pregame assumptions of both players proved to be unfounded by the time that day's season opener with Northside had ended. Juanarena was not deceased and has in fact survived to this day. As for Phillips, he learned swiftly that he had been way overconfident. But as it turned out, that confidence, though shaken at times, has served him well since.

The year was 2005 and they were both freshmen. As fate would have it, the clash with the Vikings was a long one. A late tie sent it into extra innings. The month being March, it started to get dark early. The field was unlighted. Blacksburg coach Jim Shockley was hoping the game would be declared a tie and called for darkness, but the umpire said play on.

"I was afraid there'd be a line drive and somebody was going to get killed," Shockley said.

Juanarena had his hands full trying not to let anything get past him in a tight game. The later it got, the more stressed out he became.

"By the time the game ended, I couldn't see my fist," he said, holding it at arm's length.

Phillips, meanwhile, had sized up the Vikings pitcher before the game and concluded he could handle him.

"He was just this little left-hander," Phillips said.

The young man could throw, though, as many players would find out over the next three years. Lefty Flora ended an illustrious career as the 2007 Timesland Player of the Year and now pitches for Virginia Military Institute.

Now, Juanarena and Phillips face the end of illustrious careers as the Bruins' only two four-year starters. Maybe the key to the whole journey was just making it through that first season. Adjustments galore had to be made, especially to varsity level pitching, but that would come later. The first year was another story.

"I'll be honest, we never did really adjust that season," Phillips said. "We didn't hit anything."

Shockley never gave up on them. Phillips and Juanarena learned as they went. Now, Phillips is one of the top hitters in Timesland, starting the week hitting .422 with a home run, 19 hits and as many runs batted in. An unusual package of power and speed, Phillips also has stolen six bases.

Juanarena isn't the consistent hitter Phillips has been (he was hitting .255 this week), but he's used his superior speed to produce two triples and a double among his 12 hits. His eight career triples are the most at Blacksburg since 1992. He's scored 18 runs this season while batting second.

Behind the plate he's been terrific. He has only one error this year.

"I may have the world's quickest catcher," Shockley said.

Attribute part of their success to pure athletic ability. Juanarena gave up football after his sophomore season in order to be able to play fall baseball. He wrestled for the first time this season and won more than 30 matches at 145 and 140 pounds.

Phillips has played football and wrestled along with his baseball all four years in high school, and done them all well. In wrestling, he won more than 40 matches at 189 this season and finished third in the Group AA meet. He's thinking about walking on the football team at Virginia Tech, where he plans to go to college.

Shockley, for one, thinks he's been badly overlooked as a college baseball prospect, same with Juanarena.

"If they can get to college and concentrate on one sport, then their best baseball is ahead of them," said Shockley, who has conveyed the views to college coaches.

Juanarena plans to go to either Tech or Radford and is considering being a baseball walk-on at either school.

Both players have the work routines to succeed, habitually taking extra cuts in the batting cage and working out on their own. Phillips' father Jay, once on Tech's baseball coaching staff, has been a willing batting practice pitcher.

"Both guys have gotten tremendous family support," Shockley said.

It was also helpful that each of them had been spurred on by a disappointing freshman season, at least from an offensive standpoint.

"I definitely felt like we had something to prove," Phillips said.

It was crucial that they enjoyed the support of their coach and teammates. If there were doubters, which there probably were when the going was tough for them early in their careers, they never heard about it.

"The team was really understanding," said Juanarena, who has caught every game but one for Blacksburg since the first game freshman season. "We didn't listen to anybody but the team."

These days, outside the team, Phillips and Juanarena are hearing nothing but applause.