Roanoke Times Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc. DATE: MONDAY, May 16, 1994 TAG: 9405160089 SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B2 EDITION: METRO SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"Nothing is better for thee than me," quoth the Quaker gentleman on the cylindrical container.
Nothing was worse for the Kinstonians than Salem Buccaneers pitcher Sean Lawrence and his associates Jason Kendall and Daryl Ratliff.
Lawrence, a crewcut left-hander from Ephraim, Ill., yielded a skimpy seven hits and two earned runs over eight innings and Kendall and Ratliff were a collective 5-for-8 with five runs batted in and four scored as the Bucs averted a Municipal Field sweep by dogging the Indians 14-4 in a sunny Sunday matinee.
It so happens that Lawrence, Kendall and Ratliff are housemates with a fondness for a particularly fortifying breakfast.
"It was the oatmeal," said Kendall, who got his nutritional money's worth by drilling three hits, only a double short of the cycle, and driving in four.
So it's oatmeal every morning, is it?
"It is now," Kendall said. "You wouldn't believe how superstitious we are at our house. I could go on for two hours."
Which would only be 30 minutes short of the time it took to dispatch the Indians (17-20), brisk entertainment for an audience of 1,967 that also was serenaded by a comedy act of ersatz Blues Brothers.
Kinston was a candidate for the Blues Hall of Fame after left-hander Charles York and successor Craig Sides were strafed for 11 runs and nine hits in the first two innings.
"I pitched OK, but I didn't do a lot compared to these guys," said Lawrence, making a sweeping gesture to his fellow employees in the clubhouse. "The credit goes to them."
Actually, Lawrence was only being too modest. Aside from a fourth inning in which Kinston got a little out of hand and scored four runs - "It kind of snowballed on me," he said - the Midwesterner cruised like a kid on the beachfront.
"He pitched OK," Kinston manager Dave Keller said. "He threw his curve for strikes and we didn't adjust much."
That raised the eyebrow of one student of pitching, Bucs manager Trent Jewett:
"It's not often that you see somebody throw his breaking ball for strikes more than his fastball, but that's what he did."
Lawrence also gave a breather to a bullpen that needed it after Kinston won the first two games by a composite score of 16-4. Marc Pisciotta came in to pitch a perfect ninth, his first work after squandering a three-run bottom of the ninth lead in a 6-5 loss to the Durham Bulls on May 11.
Salem had 15 hits Sunday; Jay Cranford and Marcus Hanel had three each. Hanel, a .172 hitter coming in, wracked his brain to recall the last time he's done that.
"It's been awhile. I think it was against Winston-Salem last year. I just went up there relaxed and didn't try to analyze everything," Hanel said.
Salem (16-21) was solid all the way around. The Bucs turned double plays in the sixth and seventh and added seven outs on groundballs and nine more on flyballs.
"I probably wouldn't have been able to go as far as I did if it hadn't been for those double plays," Lawrence said. "The defense did it as well as the offense."
\ BUCSHOTS: Danny Clyburn, who had a nine-game hitting streak snapped Saturday, resumed another with an eighth-inning single. Ratliff had had an 11-game string ended Saturday. . . . Cranford has 17 hits in his past 37 at-bats, a .459 average, and he has hit safely in 11 of his past 12 games. Ratliff has nine hits in his past 23 at bats (.391). . . . Former University of Virginia left-hander Todd Ruyak pitched the seventh for Kinston, yielding two runs on two hits with one walk and two strikeouts.
Keywords:
BASEBALL
by CNB