Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 14, 1995                   TAG: 9507140116
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HILLCATS STILL SLIDING IN SALEM

``I can't remember playing well here except a game we won 12-1 and had 14 hits,'' Lynchburg Hillcats manager Marc Hill said of his club's melancholy visits this year to its neighbor, the Salem Avalanche. ``Pretty much every game here has been bad.''

Thursday's 6-3 Carolina League loss to the Avalanche was more of the same for the Hillcats. The game started with an overly enthusiastic Lynchburg baserunner ending the Hillcats' first-inning threat by trying to stretch a double into a triple. The game ended when a Hillcats baserunner made a poorly conceived dash for the plate on a wild pitch off what is probably the closest backstop in the league and was thrown out catcher to pitcher.

And that was with two on and Class A veteran Ken Bonifay, a pinch-hitter capable of tying the score on a single swing of the bat, standing helplessly at the plate.

``It's tough when that happens and you've sent one of your better hitters up there to hit,'' Hill said.

It likely was tough for Raul Rodarte to get a good night's sleep Thursday. The Hillcats third baseman was the unfortunate soul who made the last outs in both the first and ninth inning as 1,358 bemused witnesses looked on.

But there was plenty of guilt to go around. Shortstop Lou Collier, one of the Pirates' better infield prospects, had two throwing errors that led to five unearned runs. Lynchburg's Marcus Hanel, Jeff Conger (like Collier, former Salem Buccaneers) and Adrian Brown conspired to leave the sacks full after the Hillcats had loaded them with none out in the sixth.

``Matt Pool [the Avalanche starter] pitched his tail off there,'' Salem hitting coach Tony Torchia said.

He had to, particularly to Hanel and Conger, both of whom he struck out when all Lynchburg needed was either a fly ball to the outfield or a well-struck grounder.

``Sloppy baseball,'' Hill said.

For Salem, a pretty sight was slugger Nate Holdren's home run in the sixth. It was his first homer since June 18. He has hit just seven homers this year after hitting 28 last year at Asheville of the South Atlantic League.

``You can't press in this game, or you're in big trouble,'' said Holdren, who was slogging through a 1-for-15 slump coming into the game. ``The count was two and two, and I didn't think I got that much of it when I hit it. I was running hard because I could tell the left fielder couldn't see it because he was out there with his hands up. In another park, that ball probably wouldn't have gone out.''

NOTES: Jason Dietrich, who pitched to two batters in the ninth before being relieved by Matt Aminoff, came to Salem from Portland of the Northwest League Wednesday. The next day, catcher Mike Higgins was promoted to Class AA New Haven, catcher Will Scalzitti arrived from New Haven and infielder Colin Dixon was activated. ... Gene Lamont, the recently fired manager of the Chicago White Sox, was in Salem Thursday night in his new capacity of advisor to Pirates general manager Cam Bonifay.

NOTE: Please see microfilm for scores.

Keywords:
BASEBALL