Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 5, 1994 TAG: 9408060017
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Salem Buccaneers stirred thoughts of a late-season rally Thursday by beating the Carolina League's Southern Division-leading Durham Bulls for the third time in four nights, this time 10-4 to the applause of 1,756 at Municipal Field.
So now the last-place Bucs are 6 1/2 games back with a month to play. Is it conceivable a move can be made?
Salem manager Trent Jewett brushed off such speculation by muttering something about it being too early.
Marc Wilkins, the right-hander who was Thursday's winning pitcher, wasn't reluctant to be bold, though.
"We're going to come on strong this month," he said. "I know we will. The hitting's coming around. People are going to be getting tired and worn down, and that's when we make our move."
With three teams to pass, that vision may be grandiose. But baseball pennant races always has been difficult to predict.
In any event, the Bucs (15-23) made a good accounting of themselves in the four-day run with the Bulls (22-15). Thursday, it was a matter of seat-of-the-pants pitching and clattering bats.
Wilkins and successors Terry Farrar, Jose Sosa and Sean Evans squirmed out of almost-constant peril. In the end, Durham was left with 14 marooned runners and the Bucs with churning stomachs.
That's living a little dangerously there, isn't it fellows?
"Yes it is," Jewett said.
Somebody who looks at just the score might have come to the faulty conclusion that this was a painless (for the winners) blowout.
"There were a couple of times when that game was a whole lot closer than it looked on the scoreboard," Jewett said. "They had the bases loaded and we were up five and then when we were up four [both times in Durham's four-run sixth]. One swing of the bat could have tied the score."
Instead, Farrar succeeded Wilkins with two out, and, after a wobbly start when he walked Damon Hollins and permitted Raymond Nunez a single, Farrar got out of it with a groundout to Juan Williams.
The ninth, too, began ominously with Evans, the closer, glaring down from the mound. An error put one on and a walk another, but Evans bore down after that.
The game ended with the right-hander striking out the side.
The Bucs had 14 hits. The guys at the top of the order - Ramon Zapata, Lou Collier and Jason Kendall - went a composite 7-for-13 with six runs scored and five driven in.
Keywords:
BASEBALL
by CNB