Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 3, 1995 TAG: 9509060058
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The populace of the greater Roanoke Valley was not so quick to surrender its baseball this year.
Perhaps inspired by an early evening when the weather could have been the most marvelous of the season - or maybe the grim spectre of no more games at Salem Memorial Baseball Stadium until April 1996 - a throng of 6,388 showed up Saturday night to be entertained by the Avalanche's 7-4 Carolina League season-closing victory over the Lynchburg Hillcats.
The audience was the second-largest of the season, next to the crowd for the opening night of the stadium Aug.7.
``It's a lot more fun to play in front of a crowd like this,'' said Salem's Chris Sexton, who had his fun in center field instead of his usual shortstop position. ``It's easy to stay in the game when the crowd responds to every hit and every out like that.''
Sexton had a relatively uneventful evening (0-for-3 with a walk) leading off, but he might have some more excitement coming up. He will be reporting to Class AA New Haven (Conn.) today for the Eastern League playoffs.
Sexton was in center instead of at shortstop because the regular at that position, Edgard Velasquez, had raised his batting average over .300 the previous night and manager Bill Hayes thought it would be nice that it stayed there for the final statistics.
Nate Holdren wielded the noisiest bat and generally stayed busy during the finale.
``Two of everything,'' he said. ``Two hits, two doubles, two runs, two RBI...''
Maybe he'll call for deuces to be wild the next time he deals.
``It wasn't the kind of year I wanted, but I'm glad to end it on a positive note,'' Holdren said.
His two-run double sparked the breakthrough fifth inning, when the Avalanche vaporized a two-run deficit with five runs. That gave starter Doug Million the breathing room he needed to work six successful innings in which he gave up one earned run.
Million, the 19-year-old taken first by the Colorado Rockies in the 1994 draft, went four starts with Hayes calling his pitches for him from the dugout but was on his own for the last two.
``They wanted me to concentrate on my pitching and not what to throw,'' Million said. ``Instead of using my off-speed stuff for outs, I used the fastball more tonight. You don't have to use the off-speed stuff all the time because often they're looking for it and that's when you can surprise them.''
Setup man Scott LaRock came in to work scoreless seventh and eighth innings. LaRock yielded a leadoff single to Ken Bonifay and a double to Jake Austin in the eighth, then retired three in a row without further incident.
``The key for LaRock was getting [Reed] Secrist, a pretty good hitter, to hit it back to the mound on the first pitch with men on second and third with no outs,'' Hayes said.
Mark Brownson, who came on to pitch the ninth, surrendered a single, a walk and a wild pitch and had runners at second and third with one out. But nothing came of it for Lynchburg, and Brownson had his first save.
NOTES: Brownson will be joining fellow pitchers Million and Brent Crowther at the parent Colorado Rockies' instructional league base in Tucson, Ariz., in the fall. The position players from Salem headed to Arizona are Forry Wells, Vicente Garcia and Velasquez. ... Garcia was named the Avalanche's player of the month. Player of the year went to pitcher Jamey Wright. ... Catcher Yohel Pozo, the ninth hitter in Saturday's lineup, doubled twice and scored on a passed ball.
NOTE: Please see microfilm for scores.
by CNB