FINCASTLE - It was called the Roanoke City-County tournament for decades. It morphed into the Valley Amateur in the mid-1980s. For the past three years, it has been known as the Roanoke Valley Match Play Championship.

While the name has changed, there's one remaining constant when it comes to the valley's oldest men's amateur golf event: It's a bizarre stage in which absurdity often rules. Thank Tony Hart, a 48-year-old roving Botetourt County elementary school teacher, for authoring the event's latest Ripley's Believe It Or Not-like script.

In the type of monumental upset that makes this championship so alluring for all the relatively unknown, blue-collar average Joes of valley golf, heavy underdog Hart ousted two-time champion Miller Baber 1-up in 19 holes in a second-round stunner Friday afternoon at Botetourt Country Club.

"Man, I feel like I just won the whole thing!" bellowed a grinning Hart, fully realizing the shock value of his triumph over the much more celebrated No.4 seed.

"The funny thing is I called Miller [one of the event's directors] at the last minute to ask him if I could get in this thing. I sort of hate to send him home, truthfully."

Hart, a former Lord Botetourt High head football coach who now teaches at Eagle Rock Elementary and Breckinridge Elementary in Fincastle, squandered an early 4-up lead and then birdied the first extra hole to send Baber packing early.

Talk about a teacher who is in favor of grading on the curve. Hart emerged victorious despite the fact that his scorecard said 77, compared to 71 for Baber. That's the nuances of match play for you, folks.

"Miller never had to make a putt to win a hole," said Hart, who also birdied the 19th hole to clip Rob Campbell in his first-round match. "I was picking up for big numbers all day long. Then I started leaking oil big time on the back nine ... I was just scared to death of my swing. Hey, there are a lot of people up on that scoreboard a lot better than me."

Hart, the 29th seed, willingly confessed that playing on a track that he circles every day of the week was his saving grace.

"I'm a 3-handicapper here, but that's a joke," Hart said. "The scouting report on me would be don't let me get ahead, and that my game doesn't travel well. This is the only course where I could beat Miller."

Baber, 39, knows all about the home-course edge. Last week, he advanced to the quarterfinals of the State Amateur at Roanoke Country Club before losing to eventual champion Billy Hurley of Leesburg.

"Hey, these are the kind of stories you get in this tournament," Baber said. "In match play, anybody can beat anybody, so everybody ought to come on out."

Hart will face 45th-seeded Steve Hale in this morning's third round. Hale, a deep snapper for Virginia Tech's football team in the early 1980s, apparently is another upset specialist.

"Those other guys have never heard of me, but match play gives me a chance," said Hale, 38. "I took [defending champion] David Tolley to the 18th hole two years ago. I hope I can see Tolley again."

"Tell Lefty [southpaw Hale] that he'd better bring his A-game this year," retorted Tolley, who cruised to a pair of lopsided wins Friday.

Tolley, 44, the No.1 seed, maintained there are only five players who can win the regular-division title. Baber is gone, but No.2 Jack Allara, No.3 Matt Mankin and No.5 Cam Young are left.

"I'll give you the field and we can bet whatever you want," Tolley said.

In the 55-and-over senior division, the top four seeds, led by defending champion Dick Wagner, advanced to today's semifinals.

In the 70-and-over super senior division, three of the top four seeds, including defender Bill Shrader, easily advanced. RCC's Jerry Dowdle, whose only age admittance was he was in his 80s, supplied the day's only upset, draining a 25-foot birdie putt on the final hole to oust Rufus Spiers.