THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 23, 1995 TAG: 9506230637
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICH RADFORD, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
A bead of sweat fell from the nose of Reid Cornelius as he stood in the Norfolk Tides locker room following his complete game performance in a 3-2 victory over the Ottawa Lynx Thursday.
It dotted his undershirt for a moment before evaporating. Happens all the time, particularly after throwing 112 pitches on a humid summer afternoon.
What was different was the undershirt, a royal blue pullover with a Montreal Expos insignia.
Old habits are hard to break. Until two weeks ago, Cornelius had been in the Expos' farm system for seven years.
Now he's property of the New York Mets, a reclamation project acquired two weeks ago in a trade for major leaguer David Segui. The Expos shirt must go. He promises it will.
The kind of pitching he turned in Thursday is welcome to stay.
After Cornelius' third consecutive solid outing, Tides manager Toby Harrah was gushing praise, while Lynx manager Pete MacKanin was wondering if his organization had made the right move.
Cornelius gave up six hits, struck out four, walked three and allowed one earned run in what was just his fourth complete game of his injury-riddled career. He looked like going the distance was old hat for him, though, giving up just one hit in the last four innings as the Tides improved to the best record in the International League at 46-29.
``That's the best I've seen him pitch,'' MacKanin said. ``It's unfortunate that he's sent down to get straightened out and he gets straightened out and we don't reap the benefits.''
Cornelius started the season with the Expos, but was optioned to Ottawa after eight so-so relief appearances which left him with an 8.00 earned run average. He was also so-so with the Lynx (1-1, 6.75 ERA).
But since the trade, Cornelius is 2-0 with a 0.84 ERA.
``I finally made the bigs after seven seasons in the organization and three years on the (Expos' 40-man) roster,'' Cornelius said. ``But I wasn't sure what their plans were when they optioned me down. Maybe I wore out my welcome a little bit.''
An 11th-round draft selection out of high school in 1988, Cornelius, 25, fought elbow troubles for four years. Reputed specialist Dr. Frank Jobe operated on the elbow in 1992 and discovered the problem was less than originally feared.
``They thought I was going in for a Tommy John operation,'' Cornelius said, meaning full-blown ligament reconstruction. ``That would have meant an 18-month recovery period. The ligament was just stretched, which had made it tough to straighten my elbow after I pitched. I was back in six months.''
Cornelius gave up an unearned run in the first on singles by Kevin Castleberry and Junior Felix, respectively aided by the errors of Tides outfielders Derek Lee and Ricky Otero.
The Tides evened matters in the second when Lee was hit by a pitch, stole second, took third on Aaron Ledesma's groundout and scored on Butch Huskey's sacrifice fly to center.
Ottawa retook the lead in the fourth when Cornelius plunked leadoff man Ted Wood and Yamil Benitez followed with a run-scoring double to left.
But that was all for the Lynx and Cornelius got the needed offensive help in the fifth.
Huskey was hit by a pitch with one out, stole second and scored on a double down the leftfield line by Alberto Castillo. Rey Ordonez doubled to the gap in right to plate Castillo with what would become the game-winning run.
Cornelius came to bat in the eighth, but Harrah wasn't about to pinch-hit for him.
``I like complete games,'' said Harrah, whose team has thrown an International League-leading nine this season. ``And I think pitchers should focus on going nine innings.
``His last couple of starts have been quality starts and he looks as healthy as he can be.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
LAWRENCE JACKSON/Staff
Kevin Castleberry of Ottawa looks for the umpire's call on a
tag-out of the Tides' Carl Everett, who was caught stealing.
by CNB