THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 11, 1995 TAG: 9509110156
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM ROBINSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
For Game 1 of the International League's Governors' Cup finals Sunday, the Ottawa Lynx sent an unknown quantity, rookie Jose Paniagua, to the mound with a whole lot of nothing behind him.
The Ottawa bullpen was all but tapped out by a five-game battle with Rochester for the right to play the Norfolk Tides for the Cup. Thus, a premium was placed on a lengthy outing from Paniagua, a 22-year-old just activated from Double-A, where he yielded more than five runs per nine innings.
So what Paniagua did was, he lasted. Struggled but persevered. Courted trouble, then escaped twice by striking out Tides with the bases loaded.
The combined pitching efforts of Paniagua and reliever Hector Fajardo and two eighth-inning runs off Tides bullpen stalwart Bryan Rogers lifted the Lynx to a 4-2 victory to start this best-of-five series.
Game 2, the last game at Harbor Park this season, is tonight at 7:15. Righthander Phil Stidham will pitch for the Tides vs. lefthander Bob Baxter.
``I'd never seen him before, but I'd heard that he had very good stuff, and if he's throwing strikes, he's going to be tough to beat,'' Ottawa manager Pete Mackanin said of Paniagua. ``And if he's not throwing strikes, he's not going to last long.
``Then we got in that first inning and I said, `Aw ----. This isn't one of his nights.' You had to be impressed with his composure out there and his ability to turn it around and get on track.''
The Tides' first inning was a critical missed opportunity, though Norfolk did take a 1-0 lead. Paniagua hit Kevin Morgan, walked Jay Payton, gave up Alex Ochoa's RBI single and walked Edwin Alicea, loading the bases with two outs.
That brought up rookie first baseman Brian Daubach, who played only because Aaron Ledesma took himself out of the original lineup because of a strained right quadriceps. Daubach took a called third strike on a full-count pitch.
Ledesma, who hit .450 in the Tides' first-round series with Richmond, later pinch-hit but struck out. His status for tonight is uncertain. The same goes for third baseman Alicea, who said he twisted his right ankle in the second inning, though Jason Hardtke didn't replace him until the seventh.
``When players get hurt, other guys just have to step up and get after it,''Tides manager Toby Harrah said. ``Whether it be Daubach or Hardtke, they just have to get in there and shine.''
Ochoa had a chance to bring some luster to the Tides' evening when he batted with the bases loaded in the seventh in a 2-2 game. Paniagua got Ochoa to chase a slider out of the strike zone for the last of his eight strikeouts.
``I didn't pick up that pitch or something, because I usually don't swing at pitches in the dirt,'' Ochoa said. ``I might have been a little overanxious, trying to get the guys in and swung at a bad pitch.''
Another ball Ochoa failed to pick up proved costly, too.
Until Ottawa bunched three of its four hits in the eighth to score twice, its only hit was a fifth-inning triple by Kevin Castleberry that rightfielder Ochoa lost in the twilight. Chris Martin brought Castleberry in with a sacrifice fly that tied the game at 2.
It was the only hit allowed by Tides starter Robert Person in an adventurous six innings. Person struck out eight but walked seven.
``We were kind of flat,'' Payton said. ``We just had a real low level of intensity. We have to pick it up. If we don't, we'll get our butts beat tomorrow.'' ILLUSTRATION: OTTAWA 4
NORFOLK 2
by CNB