Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 26, 1993 TAG: 9305260242
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Beware, too, those bases on balls.
Bubba Smith, the 1992 Carolina League home run king newly traded from the Seattle Mariners organization to the Cincinnati Reds, arrived late at Muncipal Field on Tuesday night but just in time to provide the Winston-Salem Spirits a pinch run batted in to tie the score with the Salem Buccaneers in the eighth inning. Then, Mike Harrison's sacrifice fly provided the go-ahead run that completed a six-run rally in a 9-8 stomach-turner for the Bucs.
Both runners reached base when Salem relief ace Jeff McCurry delivered consecutive one-out walks.
Salem got hits in both the eighth and the ninth, but stranded both runners - Tony Womack on third in the ninth. Former University of Virginia left-hander Todd Ruyak, with the Spirits for only five days, got the last three outs for his second save.
Salem, alone in first place in the Carolina's League's Southern Division for all of one day, slipped back into a second-place tie with the idle Durham Bulls, a half game back of the Kinston Indians.
It was a terrific comeback for the Spirits, who looked to have given up the ghost after falling behind 8-3 after three innings.
Cleveland Ladell's three-run homer in the sixth made it 8-6 and Mateo Ozuna made it 8-7 with an RBI double in the seventh. Two were on with one out in the eighth when Troy Buckley slashed a single to load the bases.
On came Bubba, he of 32 homers at Peninsula last year. A gallery of 722 was abuzz about Bubba long before he ever entered the game. The rumor was that he had arrived by limo, wad of cash in hand to pay the driver.
"Nah," he said. "I came by cab, just like anybody else."
And the big guy delivered, up the middle, with a bat snapped like a twig.
Welcome back to the Carolina League, Bubba.
"Thrilled to be here," he said.
\ BUCSHOTS: Winston-Salem's Eric Owens, the Ferrum College product, was out of the lineup because he was with his father, who was having open heart surgery.
Keywords:
BASEBALL
by CNB