ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 11, 1996 TAG: 9604110068
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
THE BIG LEAGUER gets a taste of spring training Southern style as Salem splits a doubleheader with the Wilmington Blue Rocks.
Normally, spring training for Eric Young amounts to a trip to Arizona and 30 or so baseball games in the warm desert air.
This year, spring training was a trip to frosty New Haven, Conn., and wind-chilled Salem, Va. The mission was to rehabilitate a broken right hand.
Young got off the plane in Roanoke early Wednesday evening and was at Memorial Stadium in time to start at second base for the Salem Avalanche and play all nine innings of a 6-5 extra-inning loss to the Wilmington Blue Rocks.
Salem won the first game 7-5.
Young made five plate appearances in the leadoff position during the nightcap that included a flyout, a groundout, a strikeout, a walk, and a stolen base.
His called third strike ended the sixth inning with two men on and the Avalanche trailing 5-3. Young complimented the pitcher, Geno Morones.
``That was a nice slider,'' Young said. ``For `A' ball, that was a hell of a pitch on a 3-2 count.''
Al Shirley, the former New York Mets No.1 draft pick from Danville, ended the second game with a solo blast off Salem reliever Scott LaRock. Salem had tied the score 5-5 on a couple of unearned runs in the bottom of the seventh.
Young is a three-year veteran of the big leagues and had his best season at Colorado in 1995, hitting .317 with nine triples and 35 stolen bases in 120 games. Young had just been returned to second base. The Rockies had moved him to the outfield after the All-Star break in 1994.
He broke a hand in an off-season batting cage workout in February in Atlanta, where he was visiting friends.
``I was lackadaisical and didn't get out of the way of the pitch in time,'' he said. ``I was taking the pitching machine for granted.''
Young, 28, expects to be in Salem for two more games before moving on to AAA Colorado Springs in preparation for hooking back up with the big-league club late next week.
Being in Salem wasn't so bad.
``This clubhouse is awesome, wow,'' he said. ``I couldn't believe it coming here from AA.''
The Avalanche's Brian Culp may have done everybody a favor when he lashed a home run over the left-center field fence in the bottom of the seventh to settle the first game.
Even the Blue Rocks might have silently thanked Culp for keeping matters to seven innings on another brisk evening at the park.
``They Zambonied the outfield before the game,'' Culp said. ``We had a real smooth surface out there.''
A smooth stroke with two outs was good for the game winner.
``I never ended a game with [a home run],'' Culp said. ``I wasn't sure I could hit it out of here. I hit a couple last year that I thought I'd hit well and they didn't even reach the warning track.''
Just as important was the single John Fantauzzi stroked before Culp's clout. Fantauzzi had replaced Nate Holdren, lost to a pinch runner in the fifth.
``Fantauzzi was down to his last strike,'' Culp said. ``He clutched up there. He was coming in there cold, too, which is hard to do.''
Fantauzzi kept it going in the second game, doubling in his first two at bats.
SNOWBALLS: The Blue Rocks had a second player with Virginia ties on the roster aside from Shirley, a former University of Virginia football recruit. The other was left-handed pitcher Marc Phillips, who went to VMI. Phillips, from Waynesboro, played his last season for the Keydets in 1994. He was 6-2 with a 3.05 ERA and three saves in 38 games last season in Springfield, Ill., of the Midwest League. ... Blake Barthol, in his second game this season for the Avalanche, homered for his first hit of the year in the opener. ... Salem pitcher Stephen Shoemaker, who came to the Rockies organization in an off-season trade with the New York Yankeesn, has an unusual fashion affectation. He paints his right shoe black for luck.
LENGTH: Medium: 77 linesby CNB