THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 5, 1995 TAG: 9507050153
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LEONARD LAYE, KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
DATELINE: FORT MILL, N.C. LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
This time, there was no suspense.
After being pushed to the 11th inning before winning a night earlier, the Norfolk Tides stormed from behind Tuesday with a six-run fifth inning en route to a 9-2 victory over the Charlotte Knights before a crowd of 8,252 at Knights Castle.
Norfolk banged out six hits and took advantage of two walks to move from a 2-1 deficit to a 7-2 lead. It was more than enough to keep the Tides - winners of seven in a row - cruising along atop the IL West with a 56-30 record.
Jason Isringhausen was the beneficiary, running his record to 9-0 despite yielding a season-high 11 hits over six innings. He was charged with two earned runs and saw his ERA rise from 1.15 to 1.29.
Isringhausen ``wasn't very comfortable tonight,'' Knights manager Sal Rende said. ``That's the first time I've seen him. But for a guy with the numbers he's put up, he didn't look very comfortable.''
The big hit in Norfolk's fifth was a one-out, two-run home run to center by centerfielder Carl Everett, lifting the Tides into a 3-2 lead. Then came a parade of hitters chipping away at Charlotte starter Miguel Batista with singles.
Greg Graham and Derek Lee singled, then Butch Huskey drove in Graham with another single, with the runners moving up to second and third on a futile throw to the plate. Tracy Sanders, the man of the hour Monday with a game-winning home run, walked to load the bases.
Batista fanned John Orton for a second out and for a moment it appeared the Knights might escape with no more damage. But Batista walked Edwin Alicea with the bases full, and relief pitcher Aaron Small came on with Charlotte trailing, 5-2.
Rey Ordonez beat out Terry Jorgensen's throw to first on a grounder, allowing two more runs across before Isringhausen's groundout finally closed the inning.
The Knights, who had sptted the Tides a 1-0 run on Huskey's RBI single in the first, had taken a lead of their own in the third on RBI singles by Rod Brewer and Bob Zupcic. But after the Tides' comeback in the fifth, the Knights didn't have nearly enough left for a recovery.
Charlotte finished with 14 hits.
``We had two hits an inning for the first six or seven innings,'' Rende said. ``We got four singles in one inning and oculd only score two runs. That's all we could muster.'' ILLUSTRATION: GAMEWATCH
BOXSCORE
STANDINGS
[For a copy of the charts, see microfilm for this date.]
by CNB