Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 23, 1994 TAG: 9404230054
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Bucs, curiously adrift all week, returned to their moorings with a 7-2 cuffing of the Durham Bulls as 881 spectators looked on and shivered on a cold night at Salem's Municipal Field.
For once, the Bucs (6-9) put together a total package - good pitching, stout hitting and watertight defense - to hand the Bulls (5-10) their fourth consecutive defeat. Salem also left Durham alone in the cellar of the Carolina League's Southern Division.
Salem, last in the league with nine home runs entering the game, hit three of them, Alan Purdy's being the first of his career.
"I'm glad to get that one out of the way," Purdy said. "You get to this park and see how small it is and think, `I can do that.' Then you start trying to hit everything out. That's how you get into bad habits."
Reed Secrist's solo shot to lead off the fifth was his first home run of the year and put Salem up 7-1. Jay Cranford's three-run blast, off embattled Bulls starter Mike D'Andrea in the first inning, got the Bucs off to a roaring start.
"I've been struggling here lately, so I tried to cut it [the swing] down and make it be a first-pitch strike," said Cranford, who hit his team-leading fourth homer. "Anything else I was taking.
"With men on first and third, I was just trying to put the ball in play. But he gave me what I was looking for on the first pitch."
Salem has been looking for something other than slipshod defense, the ugly evidence of which was 27 errors in 14 games. Friday, there were none.
All in all, a pleasant night for everyone in the Bucs' clubhouse, particularly the manager.
"That's what I expect," Trent Jewett said. "That's what we teach. Pitch good, hit good and play good defense."
Salem starter Marc Wilkins sailed through seven innings on 92 pitches, scattering five hits, striking out five and walking one. His only flaws were solo home runs by Mike Warner in the third and Juan Williams in the seventh.
"My goal was to make it through seven innings," Wilkins said. "The last time out, I only went five."
Wilkins, a 47th-round draft choice in June 1992, baffled the Bulls for most of the evening.
"I didn't have a curveball, but that was OK," he said. "I used the change-up and changed speeds a lot. Aside from the first inning [when he had his only walk], I threw strikes."
\ BUCSHOTS: Salem made short work of it - 2 hours, 12 minutes, very swift by Carolina League standards - to the relief of those eager to get in out of the cold. . . . The Bucs' Jeff Conger, fresh from a stint on the disabled list, doubled in his first at-bat, scored and went 3-for-4. Additionally, he made a splendid play in center field that started on a carom off the wall on an apparent double by Marty Malloy. Conger threw him out at second base. . . . Jake Austin went on the disabled list with a pulled hamstring. "Rod [Lich, the Bucs' trainer] told me on a scale of one to 10, it was about a `3' [in severity]," Jewett said. . . . Secrist, batting cleanup for the first time, singled and homered and drove in a pair of runs. . . . Raul Paez and Daryl Ratliff also had two hits each.
by CNB