Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 1, 1993 TAG: 9305010212
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Bucs pinned the ears of the Lynchburg Red Sox back by the count of 11-3 and there were 5,557 patrons to witness the event.
Gone is a five-game Carolina League losing streak.
Gone was weak pitching. Gary Wilson saw to that.
Gone was the chore of having to play from behind.
And gone was a baseball that Buc big guy Mike Brown mugged over the right field fence and three-quarters of the way up the trees to lead off the seventh.
"That ball is hit out of any ballpark, anywhere," Red Sox manager Mark Meleski said.
"I don't know what to say," said Brown, normally not at a loss for words. "I got that one pretty good."
By that time, Lynchburg (8-13) was getting whacked pretty good in general. Marty Neff's seventh homer of the season and Ken Bonifay's double blew open a four-run fourth to start the steamroller chugging. Sox starter Bret Donovan lasted only one more inning, by which time he'd coughed up six hits and two walks. Donovan came into his fifth start with a 9.82 earned run average.
"I'm not seeing any progress there at all," Meleski said.
The Bucs (7-13) scored three runs in both the sixth and the eighth. Two in the sixth came on bases loaded walks to Bonifay and then Jon Farrell by reliever Jeff Faino.
Wilson, meanwhile was fileting the Lynchburg hitters. He worked seven shutout innings, scattering four hits and striking out eight.
"Eight?" he said. "It didn't seem like that many. I haven't been striking out many batters lately [10 in his previous 19 1/3 innings]."
Wilson said that both his fastball, which hasn't been as speedy as he'd like recently, and his curve behaved.
"It was my best outing since spring training," he said.
Another cheerful development for Salem was activity in the lower part of the order. Joe Ronca, batting sixth, Angelo Encarnacion in eighth and Tony Womack in ninth were a combined 7-for-11 with six runs scored and two driven in.
Womack, who had his family in from Pittsylvania County, went 3-for-3, stole a base, scored thrice, and made some terrific plays at shortstop.
"I finally started staying in there against left-handed pitching and went with the pitch," he said.
Bucs manager Scott Little, who is battling a wicked cold, was feeling a lot better after the game.
"This game came at the best time," he said. "I'd rather have one like that than having to sweat a close one out waiting for something bad to happen."
\ BUCSHOTS: Neff moved into a tie with Farrell for the league lead in homers. In the ninth, Lynchburg designated hitter Doug Hecker belted a three-run shot off Jim Martin to break up the shutout and move him into a three-way tie for the league dinger lead. . . . Farrell took a foul tip off his finger and had to leave the game in the eighth. He's day-to-day. . . . Keith Thomas, fresh in town from Class AA Carolina, pinch hit for Farrell with the count 0-2 and dribbled an RBI single to second. . . . Meleski was clearly bothered by what he'd seen. "I can't think of one good play or at bat we had all night. For us, there were no highlights." . . . Two ducks settled contentedly in the grass just beyond the infield to the right side of second base for the last inning. An error, at least two hits, and a groundout took place in that neighborhood and nary a feather was fluttered. The ducks were still taking their ease as the players withdrew at game's end. \
see microfilm for box score
by CNB