ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, August 19, 1996 TAG: 9608190165
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RALPH BERRIER JR. STAFF WRITER
THE SALEM AVALANCHE scores a run late to give pitcher Matt Pool a victory.
Matt Pool could have been the unluckiest guy in the ballpark.
The Salem Avalanche right-hander had pitched the game of his life, allowing just two hits and striking out nine over eight innings. Amazingly, he had been outpitched because he was sharing the mound with Prince William's Carlos Castillo, who was going through the Salem order like a dose of Castor oil.
Pool couldn't even watch as Castillo yielded but one hit - an infield single at that - and set down 20 straight Salem batters at one point.
``I'd sit down, get a glass of water, and there would be two outs,'' Pool said of his between-inning respites.
Matt Pool could have been the unluckiest guy in the ballpark. But he wasn't. Because Castillo was.
An unearned run in the bottom of the eighth was enough to give Salem all the scoring it would need and send Castillo to a crushing 1-0 defeat before 1,893 fans at Memorial Stadium on Sunday night.
Salem's sixth win in its past seven games gave it a 5-1 record on this homestand. It was the proverbial classic, if unexpected, pitcher's duel. Pool was 4-6, hadn't won in over two months and had done much of his recent work out of the bullpen. Castillo hadn't won in three decisions since being called up from South Bend three weeks ago.
Both guys pitched like staff aces Sunday. In less time than it takes to watch a TV movie of the week (1 hour, 53 minutes), Pool and Castillo scripted a game that even had a surprise ending.
How often does a guy who just won 1-0 wonder if he'd just been outpitched?
``How could you even think that?'' asked Bill McGuire, Salem's manager. ``But it's true.''
Pool (5-6) wasn't even around when Salem (22-31) scored the winning run in the eighth. He was in the clubhouse getting his arm iced when Blake Barthol lofted a flyball that Prince William center fielder Brian Simmons dropped while drifting backward. Barthol made it to second on the play, was sacrificed to third by Chad Gambill and scored on Pookie Jones' sacrifice fly to right.
There it was, the winning run, scored without a hit.
Designated hitter ``Nate [Holdren] ran in here saying, `We got a run,''' Pool said, ``and I said, `Yeah, right.'''
It was true, much to the chagrin of the beefy Castillo.
Castillo (0-4), a 6-foot-2 right-hander who weighs in the neighborhood of 240 pounds, shed more than two runs off his ERA, from 6.75 to 4.65. This, in a game where half the runners who reached against him scored.
After yielding an infield single to Chan Mayber in the first on a ball that shortstop Brandon Moore fielded deep in the hole, Castillo made the next 20 Salem would-be hitters take U-turns once they reached home plate.
Then came the fateful eighth. Castillo completed the inning and finished with seven strikeouts. Salem's Jeff Sobkoviak pitched the ninth for his fifth save.
``That was a tough one,'' Castillo said. ``You're going to lose them like that sometimes. There are going to be nights when I'm hit hard and the guys [in the lineup] will win it for me.''
Pool matched Castillo pitch for pitch. The first hit against him, a swinging bunt by Wil Polidor in the fourth, came after Pool had retired the first 10 men of the game. The second came in the fifth when Sandy McKinnon's liner bounced out of the glove of a diving Jones in left.
Pool, who hadn't won since June 4 and had made just three starts since July 3, was throwing all pitches for strikes - his fastball, curve, change-up and the personalized knuckle-curve-change amalgamation known simply as the ``Doberman,'' which happens to be Pool's nickname.
``It was a great pitcher's duel, really,'' Pool said. ``I didn't get to watch [Castillo] too much because I was thinking about what I had to do. To lose a game like that, you've got to feel for him. At the same time, we both did what we were supposed to do. I'm just happy as hell I got a win.''
SNOWBALLS: The Avalanche is off today and opens a three-game series against the Durham Bulls at home Tuesday. ... Salem's Bill Swift, on rehabilitation assignment from the parent Colorado Rockies, threw on the side Sunday for about 10 minutes and reported his right shoulder felt fine.
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines KEYWORDS: BASEBALLby CNB