Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 27, 1995 TAG: 9507270092
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAMES C. BLACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Avalanche was the beneficiary Wednesday night.
Salem (17-14), loser of its previous six one-run games, moved into first place in the Carolina League's Southern Division by a few percentage points after defeating the Prince William Cannons in a pair of close games at Municipal Field. Salem moved into first place by way of the Kinston Indians' 4-0, no-hit defeat at the the hands of the Lynchburg Hillcats on Wednesday night.
Wednesday's first Salem-Prince William game was the completion of Tuesday night's contest, which was stopped in the eighth inning because of rain.
Through the eighth, ninth and 10th innings, neither team posed a serious scoring threat. However, Salem broke through in the 11th.
With one out, Salem's Will Scalzitti reached first base on a throwing error by shortstop Wil Polidor and advanced to second on Chris Sexton's sacrifice. After successive walks to Edgard Velasquez and Brian Culp, Colin Dixon drilled a shot down the third-base line to score Scalzitti.
``That was a big boost from Dixon, because we didn't hit particularly well in that first game,'' said Nate Holdren, one of Salem's heroes in the second game.
``As a batter, you want to be in that situation as many times as possible,'' Dixon said.
Matt Aminoff (2-4) pitched 32/3 innings to earn the victory.
With one game separating the Avalanche and Kinston in the standings, Salem was looking to move closer with a victory in the second game.
On the mound for the Avalanche was Matt Pool, who had no decisions in his previous four starts.
Pool retired the first nine batters he faced before allowing a line double to Sandy McKinnon to lead off the fourth. McKinnon went to third base on a groundout to shortstop by Jason Goligoski and scored on a sacrifice fly to right field by Frank Menechino to tie the score at 1. Salem had taken the lead in the second inning on a towering home run to left field by Nate Holdren.
Prince William struck again in the fifth inning, scoring two runs on a double by Juan Thomas and a groundout by Paul Gonzalez. The Cannons scored their fourth and final run on a double-play grounder by Menechino.
With Cannons starter Scott Christman working on a three-hitter, Holdren repeated his second-inning at-bat, hitting another towering one-out shot to pull Salem to 4-2.
``I just try to hit the ball hard every time and if it goes out, it goes out,'' said Holdren.
Well, that must have been the attitude the rest of the team adopted the following inning.
With Jason Pierson on the mound, Steven Bernhardt reached on an infield single to third base and advanced to second base on a groundout to second. Vincente Garcia followed with a two-run homer to left field to tie the score at 4. But the home run derby wasn't over yet.
Velasquez hit the first pitch he saw over the scoreboard in left-center field to complete the scoring.
``It was pretty exciting,'' Holdren said. ``We really didn't see Edgard's homer because we were still celebrating Vinny's homer.''
Scott LaRock, who initially warmed up thinking he would just come into the game to get some work, retired the side in order in the ninth to earn his second save. Jason Dietrich (1-0), who pitched a scoreless two innings, earned his first victory of the season.
``It's nice to get a couple of one-run victories after losing a few,'' manager Bill Hayes said.
Salem faces Prince William again today in a 7 p.m. game before taking on Kinston for three weekend contests. The probable starters for tonight are Prince William's Chris Clemons (5-9) and Salem's Brent Crowther (1-3).
NOTE: Please see microfilm for scores.
by CNB