Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 13, 1994 TAG: 9408160032
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Cannons, who lead the loop by a mile in complete games, added one more Friday night as Michael Call stopped the Salem Buccaneers with a 10-hitter in a 6-2 victory.
``You get 10 hits and you expect to win,'' Bucs manager Trent Jewett said. ``But we didn't have any key hits.''
Call, a 25-year-old right-hander who is the eldest member of the Prince William staff, closed out his team-leading seventh route-going outing by striking out two of the three he faced in the ninth inning. Prince William has 18 complete games, 11 more than Winston-Salem, its closest pursuer.
Call ended with five strikeouts and two walks. He also was the beneficiary of two double plays.
``Mainly, it's been feast or famine for me,'' said Call, the Chicago White Sox's 20th-round draft choice in 1991. ``I've either been real bad or I've been real good. Lately, I've been real bad. Tonight, I did OK.''
Call had only two 1-2-3 innings, the first and the last. Despite all the Salem hits, Call seemed to be in command all night, however.
The Bucs broke through only in the third, on Ramon Zapata's one-out solo home run, and in the fifth when Zapata again produced a run-scoring hit.
The Bucs figured to be weaker in the lineup after catcher Jason Kendall (.318, seven homers, 66 RBI) and third baseman Jay Cranford (.264, 13, 53) were summoned to Class AA Carolina on Thursday.
``They're quality ballplayers,'' Jewett said. ``They'll do fine there just as they did here.''
Salem's troubles Friday derived more from defensive deficiencies than anything else. Two Salem errors led to five unearned runs.
``We've given up unearned runs all year,'' Jewett said of a team that has committed 190 errors. ``It seems like we always have more [errors] at home, too.''
Actually, Salem (52-65) has played decent baseball of late, going 7-5 in the month of August. The Bucs have had only one winning month, a 15-14 May.
The Cannons (64-51), meanwhile, have had an awful time with Salem. With Friday's victory, Prince William is only 7-11 against the Bucs.
``Three teams we haven't beat all year is Frederick, Wilmington and Salem,'' Prince William manager Dave Huppert said. ``They're the ones with the big right-handed hitters. Our left-handed pitchers have had a hard time getting them out.''
Call was untroubled by the right-handers.
``I've been getting two outs and then couldn't get the third,'' he said. ``Or I'll give up a two-out hit. There have been a lot of those. I haven't been able to finish guys off.''
BUCSHOTS: Lou Collier went 2-for-4 and has five hits in his past two games. ... A group of fans demonstrated against the major-league strike by wearing the colors of various teams with the logos obscured by tape or other means. ``We're not mad at baseball,'' Marty Gordon of Radford said. ``We're mad at the people in baseball.''
Keywords:
BASEBALL
by CNB