Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 16, 1993 TAG: 9306160185
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
That is, they won one with the bat of outfielder Marcus Ponder, whose bases-loaded single to the right-field warning track drove in the go-ahead run in the Bucs' 8-5 Carolina League victory over Durham.
Salem won its fourth straight and sixth in a row over the Bulls. The Bucs, a break-even road team, ran their home record to 13-17 before 1,253 spectators at Municipal Field.
They did it despite loading the bases with none out in the third and fourth innings and scoring only once. The league's home run leaders, however, hit three out of the park, including back-to-back blasts by Joe Ronca and Chance Sanford in the second inning.
Durham blew a bases-loaded chance in the fifth, scoring once on Mariano De Los Santos' wild pitch before the Salem pitcher struck out Don Robinson. The Bulls, then down 4-3, tied the score in the sixth inning on an RBI double by Phil Zimmerman, who was hitting .143 entering the game.
But Ponder, batting .229 entering the game with no home runs, hit one out to left field in the seventh to put the Bucs ahead 5-4.
In the Durham eighth, however, Joe Ayrault walked, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on Juan Williams' single to tie it.
In the Salem eighth, second baseman Sanford and catcher Marcus Hanel walked with one out. Durham's Tom Leahy then passed Tony Womack on four pitches and was yanked in favor of former Virginia Tech ace Brad Clontz.
Clontz threw a 3-1 pitch to Ponder, who hit a high fly ball to deep right field. Durham's Robinson got under it but couldn't catch it, and the runners moved up a base.
"I knew he was going to go away," Ponder said of Clontz. "That's where I like to hit the ball."
Salem's Ken Bonifay doubled in two more runs.
The Bucs' uprising made moot the middle-relief effort of Durham's Brad Hassinger, who allowed one hit - Ponder's home run - in four innings.
Robinson's adventure on Ponder's hit ended a rotten night in which he struck out three times and erred on Marty Neff's second-inning single, allowing Neff to take second.
"I just missed the ball," Robinson said of Ponder's hit.
Ponder welcomed his role as late-inning producer.
"I just like it," he said. "That's the only thing I can say."
Well, not really.
"I started choking up on the bat," said the 5-foot-10, 190-pounder. "I used to do it from the start. I got here and I tried to muscle up."
Less flexing, in this case, meant more pop.
"I don't worry about home runs," he said. "I know I don't have any power anyway." \
see microfilm for box score
by CNB