Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 18, 1993 TAG: 9306180183
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The only problem was, the Bucs kept getting pricked by thorns.
Sticky Lynchburg relief pitching - or a lack of clutch hitting by Salem - was the difference in a 6-4 Red Sox victory before 1,038 fans at Municipal Field.
Chance after chance went by until Salem just ran out of them. By the time the 3-hour, 10-minute affair had run its course, Salem had marooned 11 runners and grounded into two double plays - both by cleanup batter Marty Neff.
"Both sides had their chances," Lynchburg manager Mark Meleski said. "We lived dangerously and so did they."
The L-Sox (30-37) also left 11 men on base.
One of the most agonizing of Lynchburg's openings was closed when the L-Sox loaded the bases with none out in the seventh but didn't score. With Lynchburg leading 6-2, Bob Juday ripped a shot off the glove of Salem reliever Kevin Rychel. The ball caromed on the fly to second baseman Chance Sanford, who doubled Doug Hecker off second. George Scott then grounded into a force play.
"Beautiful double-play ball," Bucs manager Scott Little said.
Lynchburg was off to a brisk start when Bill Selby and Felix Colon bashed back-to-back two-out homers off Gary Wilson in the first to make it 2-0.
"I'm a dead-pull hitter," said Selby, who hit only his second homer of the year. "It was a fastball up. When you're not looking to hit it out, that's when you do it."
Lynchburg scored two more in the second and another pair in the fifth, but it never seemed as though Salem was out of it. The Bucs left at least a man on in each of the last six innings, including two in the ninth when Jon Farrell struck out to close the game.
"Our relief pitchers kept us in the game," Little said. "We kept chipping and chipping and were making ourselves a pain in the rear end. But we just couldn't get the key hits. That happens sometimes."
\ BUCSHOTS: Little will miss the last two games of the half tonight and Saturday to return home to Missouri on personal business. Pittsburgh Pirates minor-league field coordinator Jack Lind will manage while he's away. . . . Mike Brown's RBI single in his last at-bat extended his hitting streak to nine games. . . . L-Sox reliever Dan Gakeler left the game in the eighth when he felt something pop in one of his knees. His playing status was unknown, Meleski said.
Keywords:
BASEBALL
by CNB