ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, July 14, 1996 TAG: 9607150157
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-12 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WOODBRIDGE
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
Juan Thomas must lick his chops every time the Avalanche comes to town.
Thomas, who has killed Salem pitching this season, smashed a one-out solo homer to dead center field in the bottom of the 13th inning to lift the Prince William Cannons past the Avalanche 3-2 in a Carolina League game Saturday night. (Box score in Baseball Scoreboard. C10)
It was a tough loss for the Avalanche (9-11), who let several good scoring chances slip away and saw its relievers get out of jams with stellar pitching after the Cannons led off the 10th, 11th and 12th innings with doubles.
Salem had a great chance to win the game in the ninth and 12th innings. Tal Light led off the ninth with a double but Elvis Pena, who came in as a pinch-runner and was sacrificed to third, was thrown out at the plate trying to score on a wild pitch. In the 12th, Salem had the bases loaded with one out, but Kyle Houser grounded into an inning-ending double play.
Salem got on the board early with a run in the first off Prince William starter Chuck Smith. Houser singled with one out and John Giudice followed with a double off the left-field wall to put runners at second and third.
Nate Holdren then singled to score Houser with the first run of the game but the Avalanche missed an opportunity for more after Smith got Light to ground into a double play to end the inning.
The Cannons (10-10) answered with a run in the fourth off Salem starter Luther Hackman. Dan Kopriva led off the inning with a double and took third on a single by Jeff Leifer. Kopriva scored on a sacrifice fly by Nilson Robledo to tie the score at 1.
Salem took a 2-1 lead in the fifth when Pookie Jones scored on a throwing error by Kopriva.
Prince William tied the score again in the fifth. Thomas singled and went to second on a groundout. Will Polidor walked and Sandy McKinnon followed with an RBI single to make the score 2-2.
Hackman then allowed a bunt single to Brandon Moore to load the bases with one out before Matt Pool came on and got Kopriva to ground into a double play to end the rally.
Hackman did not pitch badly for Salem in his first appearance since being hit in the face with a line drive on May 31 and suffering a broken nose. He went 4 1/3 innings and gave up two runs on seven hits, walking one and not recording a strikeout.
Scott LaRock (1-2) took the loss for the Avalanche.'
LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines KEYWORDS: BASEBALLby CNB