Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 10, 1994 TAG: 9404100182
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Frederick Keys escaped firing squads three times in the last four innings then won the Carolina League baseball game 4-3 when pinch runner Jeff Michael scored with one out on a Manuel Santana wild pitch in the 10th inning Saturday night at Municipal Field before 2,143 aghast fans.
Salem put two men on in its half of the inning, but couldn't bring them home as pinch hitter Reed Secrist struck out and Juan Segura flied to center.
In the last four innings, Salem left eight men on base, three of them in the eighth. The 14 hits the Bucs belted off five pitchers rarely seemed to come when most necessary.
"We played our tails off," Jewett said. "Hitting a baseball is a hard thing to do. We had 14 hits and eventually somebody was going to come through.
"That was the best game we've played by far."
With all the plot machinations, it made for an interesting night at the old ballpark.
"It was more interesting for them than it was for us," Jewett said.
Keys manager Mike O'Berry marveled at the irony of the finish.
"It seems funny in a game like that, with all the offense there was, that the winning run scored on a wild pitch," he said. "I've never seen a game like that."
The teams combined for 23 hits and 22 marooned base runners, 11 for each. But most of the scoring was compressed.
After Salem took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on Jason Kendall's one-out triple and an error at third, Frederick bounced back with three runs in the fifth. Salem starter Ted Klamm had been sailing, but suddenly ran into difficulties.
B.J. Waszgis hammered a leadoff home run and after a walk, designated hitter Keith Eaddy pounded another shot over the right-field fence.
"Ask Klamm and he may say he got those pitches up, but they were both good pitches," Jewett said.
The Bucs rallied for the tie in the bottom of the inning. Chance Sanford, aboard with a leadoff double, was doubled home by Jeff Conger. The second run scored when Marcus Hanel made enough of a production of a rundown play between first and second that Conger made it home.
Dave Doorneweerd, making his first appearance this year, worked four shutout innings for Salem, but there was never a thought of leaving him past the ninth.
\ BUCSHOTS: Jon Farrell broke an 0-for-11 slump with a double in the eighth for the Bucs. . . . Leadoff man Daryl Ratliff and Sanford each had three hits for the Bucs. . . . Jewett proved he had a way with words when he described a mammoth home run by Conger on Friday night thusly: "It went over the roof and is sitting in somebody's back yard now where a Doberman is chewing on it."
by CNB