Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 2, 1993 TAG: 9307020149
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
If the Kinston Indians center fielder hadn't made other plans, somebody in the Bucs' front office might have been tempted to foot the bill for him.
The Indians' leadoff man completed a spectacular four-game series by clobbering a ninth-inning solo home run that punctuated a 9-2 Kinston rout in front of a gallery of 2,794 at Municipal Field. The Indians averted a Salem sweep.
On this dreary evening for the Bucs, Cotton went 3-for-5 with two runs scored. For the series, that left him 12-for-16 (.750) with a triple, a home run and six runs scored. His batting average improved 32 points to .288.
"Would you get mad if I don't talk to you?" he asked a clubhouse visitor afterward. "I don't even talk to our [reporter] back home. Two years ago, I got hot like this and talked about it and . . ."
He rolled his eyes. "I'm funny about stuff like this," he said.
There was nothing funny about it for the Buccaneers, who fell out of a first-place tie in the Southern Division of the Carolina League. Salem dropped one game behind the Indians and the Winston-Salem Spirits.
"Cotton had a pretty good series," Bucs manager Scott Little said tersely. "But he didn't beat us in this game."
As if Cotton, a 10-hit Kinston attack and combined four-hit pitching from former Virginia Commonwealth left-hander Matt Williams and David Welch weren't enough, Salem contributed to its own demise with five errors and several other mistakes in offensive execution.
"That was a [very] poor defensive effort," Little said. "Terrible.
"You don't catch the ball and do the little things, you're a second-division club.
"We won three games here, but we didn't execute and do the little things. We bombed the ball out of the park and got great pitching, that's how we won. Close games we probably don't win playing the way we did. I hate to rain on the parade of a good series, but that's the way it is."
Salem's Mariano De los Santos, 3-1 with a 1.89 ERA in his last five games, struggled Thursday. He gave up seven hits and seven runs in 5 innings, although only four of the runs were earned.
"His problem was the guys weren't making the plays behind him, so he then started trying to strike everybody out," Salem pitching coach Dave Rajsich said. "One or two errors you can get over, but more . . ."
\ BUCSHOTS: The Bucs took a 2-0 lead in the second on Tony Womack's RBI single and Kevin Polcovich's run-scoring double, but those were the offensive highlights. Williams didn't falter after that. "I was able to hit the outside of the plate," he said. "That was the key." Welch threw hitless ball the last three innings. . . . Salem is off to Prince William for four games and Lynchburg for three before returning July 9 for another four-game set against the Cannons. \
see microfilm for box score
Keywords:
BASEBALL
by CNB