ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, June 28, 1996 TAG: 9606280058
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RALPH BERRIER JR. STAFF WRITER
At first, it appeared to be unfortunate that Salem Avalanche ace Doug Million had to leave Thursday night's game. Then, after what happened late in the game, Million probably was glad he wasn't around to see it.
The Avalanche imploded in the final three innings in blowing a four-run lead and absorbing an ugly 9-4 loss to the Durham Bulls. (Box score in Baseball Scoreboard. B6)
A season-high crowd of 4,388 at Memorial Stadium probably had to look away from the destruction and gore on the field as Salem made five errors - four in the ninth inning that led to four unearned runs - and saw four runners thrown out on the basepaths because of lapses.
``We did so many things wrong out there, it's hard to know where to start,'' said Salem manager Bill McGuire.
You could start with pitching. Million wasn't sharp early, but wriggled out of jams in the first four innings, thanks in part to catcher Blake Barthol throwing out would-be stealers in the first and second.
Million gave up two hits and five walks to go with six strikeouts in six shutout innings before nearing his organizationally mandated pitch count of 120. He left with a 4-0 lead and lowered his league-best ERA to 1.88 by allowing fewer than two earned runs in his eighth straight start.
``He'd thrown 108 pitches,'' said McGuire, ``so there wasn't much use in him going back out there.''
The five-run seventh certainly hurt Salem (3-4), but the ninth was disastrous, as Durham scored four times on three hits.
The fact that Salem had run itself out of earlier innings left the Avalanche with no margin for errors later. Barthol was cut down trying to get back to second on Pookie Jones' RBI single in the first, then picked off second in the seventh; Chan Mayber was picked off first and run down in the fourth; and Nate Holdren was gunned down at third for the third out of the fifth after Barthol's RBI single made it 4-0.
``We ran ourselves out of so many opportunities,'' said McGuire, who called a team meeting after the game. ``Basically, I let them know how disappointed I was with how stupid we were on the basepaths.''
Durham (5-2), the first-half champion of the Carolina League's Southern Division, jumped on reliever Todd Genke (4-5) for five runs in the seventh.
Gus Kennedy homered, Marc Lewis had an RBI single and Pascual Matos added a two-run hit to tie it at 4 and chase Genke. In came Patrick McClinton, who surrendered an RBI double to Ray Nunez that gave the Bulls a 5-4 lead.
``We took advantage of opportunities they gave us,'' said Durham manager Randy Ingle, whose team seemingly was decimated by the call-up of its four best players two weeks ago. ``The thing about this team is they never give up until the last out. We lost some great players, but we got some guys from [Class AA] Greenville, too.''
Holdren and Barthol each had three of Salem's 13 hits. Kyle Houser and Mayber each had two. Durham's Derrin Ebert (6-5) gave up 12 of the hits in laboring seven innings for the victory.
SNOWBALLS: The MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) exam on Tal Light's left elbow revealed no fracture. The Avalanche third baseman, who was hit by a pitch from Prince William's Shane Buteaux on Tuesday, pinch-ran Thursday and could be back in the lineup in a couple of days. ... Salem's Chad Gambill, who had not played since June 5 because of a sore wrist, pinch-hit in the ninth and struck out, ending his eight-game hitting streak.
LENGTH: Medium: 65 linesby CNB