Local Baseball Hall Of Fame Taps 4 For Class Of ’17; Gilmore Guest Speaker

Gary Gilmore, head baseball coach at reigning NCAA Division-I national champions Coastal Carolina, will be the guest speaker at the Salem-Roanoke Baseball Hall of Fame hot stove banquet.
Gary Gilmore, head baseball coach at reigning NCAA Division-I national champions Coastal Carolina, will be the guest speaker at the Salem-Roanoke Baseball Hall of Fame Hot Stove banquet.

The hot stove will again be sizzling in late January.

The Salem-Roanoke Baseball Hall of Fame has announced the latest class of inductees to be honored at the 26th annual “Hot Stove Banquet” scheduled for Thursday, January 26 at the Salem Civic Center.

Gary Gilmore, 2016 NCAA Division-I Coach of the Year from Coastal Carolina, will be the guest speaker.

Gilmore just completed his 21st season at his alma mater, Coastal Carolina, culminated by the Chanticleers winning the NCAA Division-I National Championship. After advancing through the Regional and Super Regional rounds, including a sweep of powerhouse LSU, Coastal Carolina knocked off top-seeded Florida in the opening round of the College World Series in Omaha. Later, they defeated fourth seed Texas Tech before winning the championship over Arizona.

The two wins over Arizona in the Championship Series gave Gilmore an even 1,100 wins in his career, which ranks 14th among active NCAA Division-I coaches and 35th overall.

Long known for his teams’ ability to bunt proficiently and steal bases, he adapted his philosophy to become one of the premier power hitting teams in the nation. CCU ranked among the nation’s top-10 in all three categories in the last two years.

In his 27 years as a head coach, Gilmore has led USC-Aiken to the NCAA Division-II World Series and Coastal Carolina to 14 NCAA Regional berths. He has coached 28 players to All-American honors, had 68 players drafted and a total of 97 players having signed professional contracts.

The HOF Class of 2017 consists of players and contributors of the game of baseball; Buddy Bolding, Chad Beagle, Jason Anderson and Scott Smith.

Buddy Bolding grew up in Hardy, Va., attributing his passion for baseball and coaching to Larry Wainwright, his Vinton Recreation summer league coach in the Roanoke Valley Clyde Cocke League of the 1960s.

Bolding played at Staunton River High School, in the Virginia Amateur League, at Carson-Newman College and for the Elizabethton Twins.

After serving in Vietnam, Bolding returned to the Roanoke Valley where he coached Staunton River to a championship before moving on to build a Division-II College powerhouse at Longwood University, systematically taking them from NCAA D-III to D-II to D-I. Longwood named its baseball facility the Charles “Buddy” Bolding Stadium in 2009. His college record was 953-544-2.

Highlights of Bolding’s 35 college teams include two NCAA Division-II College World Series appearances (’82 and ’91), developing the talent of Olympic player and first-round Major League draft choice Michael Tucker and 50-plus winning high school coaches.

Beagle made his mark as an outstanding left-handed pitcher at Cave Spring High School before moving on to the college ranks at Dundalk (MD) Community College and they University of South Carolina-Aiken. He played professionally in the minors for the Florida Marlins organization for two years.

At Cave Spring, Beagle made the Group AAA All-State team as a senior. He went on to play in the Shenandoah Valley League and the prestigious Cape Cod League. He signed as a free agent out of the Cape Cod League with the Florida Marlins in 1995 and played professionally in the New York-Penn League for the Class A Elmira Pioneers and the Utica Blue Sox.

Beagle has been a long-time volunteer with the Virginia Commonwealth All-Star Baseball Games.

Jason Anderson is a 1994 graduate of Glenvar High School where he excelled on the mound and at the plate. In four years at Glenvar, his pitching record was 35-5, striking out 550 batters in 300 innings and posting a career earned run average of 0.98. At the plate he had a career batting average of .443 with 43 extra base hits, including 9 home runs.

Anderson accepted a college scholarship to Radford University where he continued his success on the mound, tossing four one-hit games and one no-hitter.

The Oakland Athletics selected Anderson in the fourth round of the 1997 MLB draft. He was named to the California League All-Star team in 1998 and led the California League and Southern League in shutouts the same year.

Scott Smith, a native of Western Pennsylvania, is a graduate of Alleghany College where, as a senior, he led the program to a school record 29 wins and its first NCAA tournament berth.

Smith began his 30-year coaching career at the University of Rochester and was the assistant and then head coach for six years where the UR program was nationally ranked. After moving to Pittsburgh, Smith coached for four more years at the college level at Division-II California (PA) University and Carnegie Mellon University, both of which established school record seasons for wins during his tenure.

After moving to Roanoke in 1998, his coaching career began again with 5-year-old T-ball, coaching every age level in subsequent years. His Roanoke Badgers travel team won two Virginia state championships.

Smith managed the Roanoke Post 3 Senior American Legion team for nine seasons, winning four consecutive District titles. More than 40 players from Post 3 moved on to play in college.

Smith has been a volunteer assistant coach at North Cross School for the past three seasons.

The Hall of Fame has also announced that long time area volunteer Mike Cromer will receive the Wayne LaPierre Sr. Community Service Award.

The Salem-Roanoke Baseball Hall of Fame was founded in 1991 and honors players and contributors from the counties of Alleghany, Roanoke, Bedford, Botetourt, Craig, Floyd, Franklin and Montgomery and the independent cities located within the boundaries of those counties. The Hall of Fame building is located on the grounds of the James E. Taliaferro Complex, next to the Salem Red Sox administrative offices behind the third base seating area of Salem Memorial Ballpark.

Tickets for the banquet are available at the Salem Civic Center box office, through the members of the Hall of Fame Board of Directors or by calling President Charlie Hammersley at 540-557-0377 or Vice President Gary Walthall at 540-427-1977. The evening begins  on the 26th with a 5:30 social and 6:30 dinner.

Bill Turner

 

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