THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 5, 1995 TAG: 9509050120
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM ROBINSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
Paul Wilson was supposed to rack up a victory Monday in Game 1 of the Norfolk Tides' playoff series against the Richmond Braves.
He did not. And now lesser mortals will be asked to rally the Tides.
The touted righthander, who will go again if Game 5 is needed, wasn't at his best, struggling with his control in a 2-0 loss. Yet he was good enough to win had the Tides done anything against Brad Woodall, the resurgent lefthander who slumped this season after being named the IL's most valuable pitcher in 1994.
In his finest outing of a poor year, Woodall checked the Tides on four hits over eight innings. Rod Nichols, who tied for the league lead with 25 saves, survived the ninth to close it out. And the Tides, who hit more balls on the nose than did Richmond, were left to lament the few inches, fractions of seconds and two-run fielder's choice ground ball that conspired against them.
``They played good defense, the lefthander kept the ball in the ballpark and had balls hit that went right at a lot of guys,'' said Tides manager Toby Harrah.
Tonight's Game 2 matchup at the Diamond pits righthander Robert Person, who is 2-1 in four Triple-A starts, against Chris Seelbach, who was an out away from no-hitting the Tides in August.
``They have a very good pitching staff,'' Harrah said, ``but we can score runs, we've scored against them before. We have to continue doing the things we've been doing and they'll start falling in, hopefully tomorrow.''
Woodall, a 26-year-old former North Carolina Tar Heel who took a 4-4 record and 5.10 ERA into the game, faced but two jams. In the third, Ricky Otero doubled with two outs but was nipped at home by a perfect throw from leftfielder Juan Williams on Jay Payton's single.
It was the second of three hard-hit balls by Payton, who flew out to the warning track in the first and lined out to left to start the ninth.
Then with one out in the fourth, with Alex Ochoa on second after walking and Kevin Morgan on first after his second single, Brian Daubach was robbed by Richmond first baseman Tyler Houston on a hard grounder.
Charlie Greene grounded to third to end the threat, and the Tides managed one more baserunner until the ninth. That was when a walk to Ochoa and Derek Lee's two-out pinch-single brought up Daubach, the first baseman promoted last week when Omar Garcia was banished to Double-A for lack of hustle.
Nichols fanned Daubach on a full-count off-speed pitch, leaving the rookie hitless in 11 Triple-A at-bats and with three strikeouts on the day.
Daubach also was in the middle of Richmond's two-RBI grounder. It came in the fifth, when Wilson walked Brian Kowitz and Jose Munoz to start the inning. They were the last of a season-high five walks issued by Wilson in six innings. He also hit one man but yielded only four hits.
Ed Giovanola's single loaded the bases, but Wilson, who escaped trouble in the third and fourth, got Jermaine Dye on a shallow fly to right. Houston, though, then bounced a chopper to the right of Daubach, who made the pickup but had ranged too far to have a play at the plate.
Daubach instead threw to shortstop Rey Ordonez for the force at second, but Ordonez's throw to Wilson covering first was too late to double-up Houston. In the meantime, Munoz never broke stride around third and easily beat Wilson's throw to the plate for the second run.
``He really couldn't make the play at the plate,'' Harrah said of Daubach. ``I thought for a second he may have had a play, but no, he really didn't.''
Nor did Harrah fault Wilson for not getting the ball home fast enough to catcher Greene to nail Munoz.
``That was the second run,'' he said. ``It doesn't make that much difference. We didn't score.''
Said Greene: ``Two runs shouldn't beat you, but today it did. If we'd have scored a couple runs early . . . if I drive in some runs when I had a chance, Paul wins it and it's a good outing.
``It's tough. It wasn't like they were ripping him. I don't know if he was just pressing a little bit or what. He just got a little wild there and they ended up scoring.''
Wilson declined comment, but pitching coach Bob Apodaca chalked up Wilson's fifth-inning problems to his intensity and eagerness, in the scoreless game, to keep the Braves blanked.
``He's such a competitor,'' Apodaca said. ``I think he just tried to turn it up a notch, and I think the volume was already turned up.'' by CNB