Jared Soares | The Roanoke Times

Buchanan Battitudes parent Chris Deisher checks on player Mckenzie Talbott after she was hit with a an errant throw during Thursday's game in Cloverdale. Deisher works heavily with his stepdaughter, Payton Hatcher, on pitching.

Jared Soares | The Roanoke Times

Buchanan Battitudes player Raven Carden (center) balances a bat before Thursday's game in Cloverdale. Popularity in softball is on the rise in Botetourt County with homegrown pitcher Angela Tincher's recent success at Virginia Tech.

File, April | The Roanoke Times

Angela Tincher

Thursday, about half past 5, Botetourt County had almost more softball going on than a single afternoon could bear.

The Buchanan Battitudes, a "ponytail" softball division for girls ages 10-12, were warming up for a 6 p.m. game against the Cloverdale Crushers.

Meanwhile, their coach, Andy Shotwell, paused briefly to check the score of a James River High School game his father, John, was coaching in Christiansburg.

And, three states away, Botetourt County-raised, James River-educated Angela Tincher and the Virginia Tech Hokies were playing their first game in the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City. Just two days earlier, Tincher won the title of USA Softball National Collegiate Player of the Year.

The county that's known for its softball fervor had three games going on within the same hour, and fans had to work hard to keep up with it all.

"Tied 1 to 1," Shotwell repeated from his cellphone. He hung up, shook his head and sighed, "All these things going on at one time."

Buchanan Town Council member Crystal Ware, sitting in the bleachers, kept track of the Tech game using her Palm Pilot.

Pat Hatcher, 61, got updates on the Tech game by phone from her son, Mike.

"Top of the fifth. Tech's got one on base. Still zero to zero," she declared from her lawn chair, situated to the rear and right of home plate.

As proud of Tincher as everyone in the county is, their enthusiasm for softball isn't so much a byproduct of her current success as it is of a collective and competitive effort. It's produced players such as Tincher and her high school successor, Abbie Rexrode, and may well be cultivating a new generation of them.

Hatcher's granddaughter, Payton Hatcher, 11, is a pitcher for the Battitudes and she idolizes Tincher, who has given her advice in the past.

"She really helped me step down the power line and get my arm faster," Payton said.

"With such a small town, no matter how much fame or fortune she gets, [Tincher] always brings back to the town," said Teresa Deisher, Payton's mother.

Payton catches with a glove that bears her hero's signature, and her practice schedule is intense.

"We typically throw 100, 200 pitches a day, seven days a week," said Payton's stepfather, Chris Deisher.

The diminutive hurler stands in her back yard and throws in a stretch of land that overlooks rye and clover fields and the tall blue silos of the old Marshall Bros. Dairy. Her target is an empty dog cage. Her small feet have thrust forward in the same spot so often they've worn bare patches in the thick, green grass.

"Basically, our life revolves around softball," Deisher said. "When it gets in you, it's in your blood and you can't get rid of it."

Deisher credits John Shotwell with most of the area's softball success.

"He's been the key behind all of this," he added. "The success of James River. Angela. Abbie. He's done a lot for us and I'd like to see him still there [coaching] when Payton comes through."

Andy Shotwell said Tincher's success has been good for the county and for the sport itself.

"It has put a whole new emphasis on girls' softball," he explained. "We've always had a pretty good program ... but this has just taken it to a new level."

Keith Hyler, whose daughter, Brittany, pitches for the Fincastle Chaos, agreed: "This is great. Everybody thinks the big cities have got everything, but a small town has got a lot to offer, also."

Wendy Nelson, coach of the Troutville/Daleville Pirates, said she thinks the "area secret" is the training and determination of the players.

Ten to 12, she said, is the age "you really start to notice who could be scholarship material. You start to notice the girls that are really going to be serious players and find a niche to go as far as Angela did."

This year she's seen a lot more female players want to be pitchers, something she attributes to Tincher's high profile.

"Somebody they actually know, somebody they've seen and talked to, is playing in the World Series," said David Meredith, coach of the Fincastle Chaos "ponytail" team.

But could this wave of acclaim and attention be setting young players up for a disappointment that could put them off the sport?

"I guess there's a danger of that in any area," Nelson said. "But I'm of the mindset that if anyone sets their mind to it, they can do it. Obviously, Angela Tincher was an ordinary kid once, too."

By 6:30, word began to circulate around the Cloverdale bleachers that a softball "hat trick" wasn't in the cards.

Tech lost its first game in the series, 1-0 to Texas A&M, as a result of an unearned run. They'll get a second shot at a victory today against top-seeded Florida.

But Shotwell's James River team prevailed 2-1 over Grayson County.

Not long after that, the Battitudes won their game 11-1.