Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 14, 1994 TAG: 9405140053
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Otherwise, trying to hit the Indians' right-hander was something like trying to lasso a mosquito.
After a ragged first inning that included three wild pitches and two walks, Fronio settled in to fastball and knuckleball his way to a three-hitter over seven innings as the Indians claimed a 5-3 victory that left them alone in first place in the Carolina League's Southern Division.
Safe to say, the Bucs didn't have much of an idea of what was going on with Fronio's bizarre arsenal of deliveries.
"His ball must have been dancing," Salem manager Trent Jewett said. "There were some guys swinging through pitches that don't normally do that.
"I don't know anything about knuckleballs. I do know they're no fun to catch."
Apparently, Fronio's hard knuckler was no waltz through the garden to hit either. Or so 10 of his strikeout victims might testify.
"The first and second inning, I kept getting behind in the count," he said. "After that, I started to get ahead and then I could throw the knuckleball and mix in a fastball when they started looking for it.
"In the third, fourth, and fifth, I was using the knuckleball. But in the sixth and seventh, it was fastball, fastball, fastball because I had it in the back of my mind that they they were looking for the knuckleball."
Fronio, was has struck out 40 and walked 14 in 41 innings to date, learned the knuckler from his father, himself a former minor leaguer, in games of backyard catch. As best Fronio can tell, the family variety of the devilish pitch isn't much like any in common usage.
"Mine's different than the one Charlie Hough or Tim Wakefield throw," he said. "They throw a slow pitch, about 50-55 miles per hour on the gun. Mine's up in the 70's. I call it a knuckleball because of the grip, but it acts more like a split-finger pitch."
Fronio also uses a variation of the pitch in which he wraps his had around the ball in such a way that it acts like a curveball. No matter what he throws, his pitches seem very hard to read.
Fronio was a reliever by trade until Kinston manager Dave Keller decided last year to try him out as starter so he could better use the knuckler. After that, he went on to start in the Carolina All-Star Game and compile a 7-9 record with a league-leading 2.41 ERA.
Salem (15-20) scored a pair in the first without benefit of a hit. An error by second baseman Michael Neal allowed both runs. That tied the score after Kinston's two-run, three-hit attack of starter Marc Wilkins to open the game.
Fronio was a different deal after that.
"I don't think he changed anything," Jewett said. "They just started catching the call. His stuff is hard to handle. He put it to us. He had very good stuff."
Neal doubled one run in in the first, then added an RBI single in the third as the Indians (16-19) regained the lead. Two more came in the fifth as Rod McCall and Sam Hence stroked back-to-back doubles off reliever Matt Ruebel. Kinston, the worst-hitting team in the league coming in with a collective .223 average, banged 12 hits.
"This was a good night to break out of it," Keller said.
Manuel Santana checked the Indians on two hits the last three innings, which raised hopes of a comeback. The best chance came in the eighth off reliever Carl Johnson. Danny Clyburn's double with two on and one out scored one, but Jon Farrell struck out and Chance Sanford flew to right to end the threat.
Another rally fizzled in the ninth when Daryl Ratliff, aboard with a two-out triple, was stranded by Jason Kendall's fly ball to left.
"That ball gets over the left fielder's head and the tying run comes to the plate," Jewett said. "We had our chances."
\ BUCSHOTS: Right-hander Sean Evans was activated from the disabled list Friday. Shortstop Alan Purdy is expected off the DL any day now. . . . Organizational baserunning instructor Jay Loviglio and hitting coach Ben Oglivie are with the team for the home stand. . . . Keller, on the tightness of the race in the Southern Division, where the best record going into Friday was .500 and four games separated first place and fourth place: "Whoever gets hot from now until the end of the first half is going to be playing in September." . . . Ratliff's triple preserved an 11-game hitting streak. He also scored a run in the first after barely making it to first while Kinston catcher Steven Soliz was having a dreadful time rounding up a wild pitch that had gone to the backstop.
Keywords:
BASEBALL
by CNB