Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 15, 1994 TAG: 9405150105
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
No exotic pitches bamboozled the Salem Buccaneers on Saturday night.
Friday, Kinston's Jason Fronio offered some deliveries that may or may not have been knuckleballs, but they were plenty mysterious to the Bucs, who managed but three hits and 10 strikeouts over seven innings.
Then Saturday, Daron Kirkreit gave Salem the purely conventional stuff. It was fastballs and lots of leather the Bucs couldn't digest this time in an 11-1 Carolina League rout before 3,667 grumpy Municipal Field customers.
Kirkreit, a strapping right-hander from California who was the Cleveland Indians' No. 1 draft pick in 1993, hurled a complete-game four-hitter decorated by 13 groundball outs, three strikeouts and no walks.
"I threw some curveballs, changeups and sliders, but it was mostly fastballs," Kirkreit said. "I usually get more strikeouts than I did tonight, but a lot of groundballs aren't out of the ordinary, either."
Kirkreit had 30 whiffs in 34 innings coming in, but he didn't have to work that hard against the Bucs. An economical 112 pitches sufficed.
"We hit it and made them make the plays, and they did," Salem manager Trent Jewett said.
Kirkreit retired 14 consective batters at one point. The Bucs' big inning was the second, when a Jake Austin single, Jay Cranford double and a Danny Clyburn grounder to short brought in the only run.
Cranford's double was the last time a Buc ventured as far as second base.
"I had pretty good movement on my two-seam fastball and I could roll it over and get them to hit grounders," Kirkreit said.
Kirkreit has pitched reasonably well (he started the night with a 3.97 earned run average); his reward has been an 0-5 record.
"It's kind of embarrassing to have that `0-5' beside your name in the paper," he said.
The Indians, who haven't been much of an offensive club, strung together four hits and a walk and scored six runs out of it to bolt to an 8-1 lead.
The most deadly blow in the sequence was Steven Soliz's first homer of the year, a two-run shot.
"You can't let them have a big inning," said Bucs starter Matt Chamberlain, who lasted through five. "The home run was a mistake pitch, 0-2. I've been trying to learn a slider and that's what he hit. Of all the pitches, a bad slider is the easiest to hit."
Kinston rapped 14 hits, scoring in each the seventh, eighth, and ninth. Patricio Claudio hit his first home run this year in the eighth, a leadoff job at the expense of Rich Townsend.
"This game is so strange," Kinston manager Dave Keller said. "Things go in cycles. Some people say that hitting is contagious and maybe that's what happened tonight and last night."
\ BUCSHOTS: Indians Epi Cardenas, Michael Neal, Mitch Melusky and Soliz - batters 5-8 in the order - were a combined 8-for-20 with four runs scored and seven batted in. . . . Salem's Daryl Ratliff went 0-for-4 to end an 11-game hitting streak.
Keywords:
BASEBALL
by CNB