THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 23, 1995 TAG: 9507230263
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM LEO, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: SYRACUSE, N.Y. LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
Suddenly, the Norfolk Tides have turned into Murderers' Row.
Maybe that's stretching it just a bit, but a team that before this season hasn't had a significant power threat since Randy Milligan hit a club-record 29 home runs in 1987 now has homered in each of its last eight games.
The Tides clubbed three home runs Saturday night - one in each of the first three innings - in a 10-3 victory over the Syracuse Chiefs.
The Tides came into the game with 61 home runs, which ranked seventh in the 10-team International League. Almost a third came from one source, Butch Huskey, who leads the IL with 19 home runs.
Huskey was held in check Saturday, when the Tides' power came from some unlikely sources.
Rightfielder Jay Payton hit his first home run in 10 games, a one-out shot to left in the top of the first inning off Tim Brown (2-2).
Shortstop Rey Ordonez, who hadn't hit a home run in 97 games this season, tomahawked a two-out, two-run home run to left off Brown in the second.
Leftfielder Tracy Sanders, who had entered the game with three home runs in 46 games, added one to right in the third, when the Tides scored three times to open an 8-0 lead.
Norfolk collected eight runs and eight hits off Brown in three innings. Six of the hits were for extra bases, including an RBI double by Payton in the second and a two-run double by Carl Everett in the third.
It could have been worse for the Chiefs. Huskey hit a 430-foot flyout to the warning track in center to end the second inning. The centerfield fence in Syracuse is 434 feet from home plate, the deepest in all of professional baseball except for Detroit's Tiger Stadium.
Everett's double in the third banged about midway up the 12-foot high centerfield fence. Only eight players have cleared the wall to dead center at 61-year-old MacArthur Stadium.
The beneficiary of all the offense was righthander David Telgheder, whose first start since June 21 was necessitated by the Friday trade of Jason Jacome to the Kansas City Royals. The parent New York Mets sent Jacome and pitcher Allen McDill to the Royals for minor league pitchers Geno Morones and Derek Wallace, both of whom were assigned to Double-A Binghamton.
Telgheder (5-4) stepped in and allowed only three hits and one run in six innings, striking out six and walking one.
Norfolk goes for the sweep of the four-game series at 6 tonight, when Tides righthander Reid Cornelius (6-1, 1.89) is scheduled to face lefty Huck Flener (5-6, 4.24). by CNB