Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 12, 1993 TAG: 9307120126
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Salem closer Jeff McCurry was the last pitcher standing with his team on the short side of a blowout, never a good sign.
"He was all we had left," Salem manager Scott Little said.
The Bucs also were left with a 10-5 Carolina League defeat at the hands of Prince William, their second consecutive loss to the Cannons.
Salem was in the game until the eighth inning, when Prince William pulled away with five runs - four of them on two-run homers by Lew Hill and Tate Seefried. Both shots came off left-hander Mark Mesewicz, who's been busy lately.
"He was just gassed - wore out," Little said. "We could see that. Wish we could have got him out of there sooner."
As big a problem as any following Saturday's four-plus-hour show at Salem Municipal Field was a rain delay that bit off 1 hour, 19 minutes. That cost Salem the services of starter Mariano De los Santos, who had struck out six and given up one hit through 2 1/3 innings.
"That hurt," Little said of the rain delay. "I don't know if we can blame this [the loss] on that because it sure didn't seem to bother [Prince William], but we could have used a quality start out of De los Santos."
Salem took a 2-0 lead after the rain stopped, but the Cannons scored four times in the fourth off Sean Evans, then spent the rest of the night looking in the rear-view mirror. Hill and Seefried each finished with three RBI. It was the seventh consecutive game in which the Cannons have homered.
Hill says his fortunes at the plate picked up a couple of weeks ago.
"I had a bad habit of dragging my back foot," he said. "I concentrated on keeping the foot down and I've hit the ball much harder."
Salem loaded the bases in the sixth with the score 4-2, but with two out, Mike Brown struck out. Brown took a tough inside pitch for strike two before fanning on strike three.
"We had our chances," Little said.
\ BUCSHOTS: Salem had its bright spots. Kevin Polcovich, batting ninth, had four hits, an RBI and a run scored. He and Chance Sanford had six of the Bucs' nine hits. . . . Sanford's evening was diminished when he was picked off first in the seventh. . . . Eric Parkinson held off the Cannons for three shutout innings before back-to-back hits in the eighth knocked him out and started the big inning. . . . Salem groundskeeper Ben Porter was fired by the club Sunday.
\ see microfilm for box score
Keywords:
BASEBALL
by CNB