varsity.roanoke.com

BUCHANAN — Abbie Rexrode had the unenviable task of succeeding Angela Tincher as the ace of the James River High School softball team.

Well, now it’s time to envy her.

Rexrode baffles hitters with her riseball just like Tincher did when she was in high school.

“I could probably throw it in my sleep,” said Rexrode, who led the Knights to the Group A title two years ago.

The senior right-hander is on the verge of becoming Timesland’s career leader in strikeouts. Rexrode has 1,121 strikeouts in her four-year prep career. Former Northside star Brandy Bailey owns the mark of 1,128, according to Roanoke Times files.

After having done so well replacing Tincher — who led James River to two Group A crowns — Rexrode will soon follow her in the circle yet again. She has reaped a scholarship to Virginia Tech, where Tincher has had a remarkable four-year career.

“I hate that she’s following Angela [at Tech] because it’s a lot of pressure on her,” said Salem High School coach Ron Reynolds, Rexrode’s former ASA coach.

But it’s nothing Rexrode hasn’t been through before.

“There’s pressure, but I think it’s more the pressure that I put on myself,” said Rexrode, whose top-seeded Knights will play in the Pioneer District semifinals Wednesday. “I’m just a really competitive person.

“I know people expect a lot, but I’m not that worried about it. I’m just going to go [to Tech] and do the best that I can do. If I can do anything anywhere close to what Angela’s done, oh my goodness, that would be amazing.”

Several influences
Rexrode began playing rec-league softball when she was 11 years old. She played second base, but she tried pitching at the end of the season.

“I was hooked,” she said. “I liked being involved in every second of the game.”

Her first private coach, Charlie Daniels, taught her how to throw hard. After a few years, she switched to Tincher’s father, Denny Tincher, who taught her the riseball.
She then switched to Reynolds, who has given her private lessons in the Knights’ off-season the past several years. He helped her hone her riseball.

“It’s just unbelievable how much movement she can get on that pitch,” Reynolds said.

Rexrode still gets instruction from Denny Tincher from time to time, either in a private lesson like she took last week or when he drops by James River to help the Knights.

“He’s been down twice [recently] to help her ’cause she was kind of getting in a funk there where the riseball wasn’t really jumping,” said James River coach John Shotwell, whose team is 15-5. “He had to call Angela at Tech while he was in the gym to find out exactly why it wasn’t jumping up.”

'Love-hate relationship’
While Rexrode has had several private coaches, the one constant has been her father, Eddie Rexrode.

At home, he would be there to catch her and offer suggestions.

“He went out and bought books and videos,” Rexrode said. “He’d take me to clinics.

“He’d be the one staying up late and reading the books, or watching other pitchers pitch and [saying], 'See, this is what she does when she throws.’ ”

Eddie Rexrode, a maintenance worker at a warehouse, is in his third season as one of Shotwell’s assistants at James River. This is his first season calling pitches.

Does Rexrode ever shake off what her dad calls?

“No, but sometimes I wish I would have,” she said with a smile.

Softball causes their relationship to get testy at times. Sometimes they will go a day or two without speaking to each other.

“It’s one of those love-hate relationships,” said Rexrode, a two-time All-Group A first-team pick. “He says I have these moments where I think I’m always right. … And other times, we get along really good.”

That’s why her father has never served as her private coach.

“Sometimes we end up fighting, … but she takes instruction real well from other people,” Eddie Rexrode said.

Future Hokie
Rexrode is batting .500 and leads Timesland with six homers.

But she is even better in the circle. She is 62-20 in her James River career, including 13-4 this season. She leads Timesland with 240 strikeouts this year. Rexrode has a 0.54 ERA this season, with 20 walks.

Coaches love her work ethic — and her riseball.

“Once she gets ahead of us in the count, she just about has us beat,” Craig County coach Mark McPherson said. “That [riseball] starts out looking like a pretty good strike and it ends up being in a place where you can’t hit it. At her release point, it starts out looking like it’s going to be waist-high and it ends up being shoulder-high.”

Rexrode also has a dropball and a good change-up in her repertoire.

“She’s got a good mix,” Tech coach Scot Thomas said. “Her deal [in college] is going to be more of keeping people off-balance and working all parts of the zone.”

At 5-foot-4, Rexrode is three inches shorter than Tincher.

She is not as dominant as Bailey or Tincher were in high school. Bailey had 12 no-hitters as a senior in 2001. Tincher finished her senior season in 2004 with 17 straight shutouts.

Rexrode has 14 career no-hitters, including five this year. She throws about 60 mph — about 5 mph slower than Tincher regularly does at Tech.

Thomas watched Rexrode pitch for James River and for her ASA team, the Roanoke Scrappers, who don’t offer as much national exposure as some summer squads outside the area. Rexrode reaped a half scholarship from Tech, which was the only school to offer her a grant.

“She’s been overlooked,” Thomas said.

Next year, Rexrode will be one of four pitchers on the Tech staff vying to succeed Tincher as the ace.

“You don’t have to have 2,000 strikeouts [like Tincher] to be successful,” Thomas said. “You can do it from a groundball standpoint, just like a [Greg] Maddux, and I think she can do that for us.”

Rexrode was an eighth grader on the James River junior varsity team when Tincher was a Knights senior.

“She watched Angela, and she wanted to be like Angela,” Shotwell said.

Next year, they will be reunited. Tincher will be a graduate assistant at Tech, working with Rexrode and the other pitchers.

“From what I’ve seen of her,” Angela Tincher said, “I think she’ll do well.”