THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 14, 1995 TAG: 9509140487
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM ROBINSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: OTTAWA LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
The Norfolk Tides faded out Wednesday, flailing.
The stragglers in an unprecedented parade of players who made this baseball season in Norfolk one to remember spent much of their night at Ottawa Stadium taking the long, lonely walk from home plate to their first-base dugout.
Between two rain delays totalling 100 minutes, the Tides struck out 14 times against four Ottawa Lynx pitchers. It was a season-high display of futility and the largest number of strikeouts collected by Ottawa in a game this year.
That lack of contact led to three hits, a meager output that the Tides could not overcome. So Ottawa took a 4-0 victory, capturing the International League's Governors' Cup in four games, the first championship in the three-year life of the Montreal Expos' top farm club.
The loss ended the Tides' first trip to the playoff finals since 1988. It also finished a season in which the Tides, in their many various forms, matched their record for regular-season victories and compiled the league's best mark, 86-56.
``There were a lot of great performers this year, 12 or 13 guys went up to the big leagues, or up and down,'' losing pitcher Chris Roberts said. ``This clubhouse is a lot different from the last time we were here, but they're still good players. A lot of these guys will be up there next year, too. This club was good enough to win it.''
It wound up with the Tides, in a trademark last gasp, rallying in the ninth inning. In the bottom of the eighth, the Lynx had ripped reliever Pete Walker for two runs on three hits, including consecutive RBI-doubles by Julian Yan and Yamil Benitez.
But against Alex Pacheco, Jay Payton, the rising outfield prospect who struggled to a .222 average (8 for 36) in the postseason, singled to start it off. After Aaron Ledesma was robbed by a sliding catch by leftfielder Benitez, Derek Lee walked.
But Jason Hardtke flew out to center and catcher John Orton, completing a nightmarish evening at the plate, struck out for the fourth time.
That set off the crowd of 8,818, who saw an Ottawa professional sports team take its first title since a Canadian Football League crown in 1976.
``We knew it was going to be a game like this, two or three runs was going to win it, and they got them,'' Payton said. ``We really haven't been swinging the bats good at all.''
By the time the game was stopped for the first time, a 55-minute delay, the Lynx had a 2-0 lead off Roberts.
The lefthander, making his first start since Aug. 30, found himself in immediate trouble. Kevin Castleberry and Jim Buccheri singled to start the game and Chris Martin doubled down the third-base line for a 1-0 lead.
Roberts eventually slipped out of a bases-loaded jam, then gave up a second run in the third on a walk, a single and a ground-ball double play. Meanwhile, Ottawa lefty Gabe White mastered the Tides, yielding only a fourth-inning single by Kevin Morgan while striking out six.
Neither starter returned after the delay. White, who in two previous postseason starts had not lasted past the second inning, was replaced by Derek Aucoin, against whom the Tides mounted their finest threat.
In the sixth, pinch-hitter Brian Daubach was hit in the helmet by Aucoin - he went to first but was removed for a pinch-runner, pitcher Robert Person, after one pitch. Daubach was examined by a doctor at the stadium and needed no further treatment.
Ricky Otero followed with a single and Morgan bunted the runners to second and third. That is where they stayed as Aucoin struck out Payton and Ledesma.
A second rainstorm stopped play for 45 minutes before the top of the seventh. When play resumed, Lee was robbed of extra bases by Ottawa centerfielder Buccheri and Hardtke saw his line drive up the middle miraculously snared by pitcher Jake Benz.
The Tides' bullpen followed suit and blanked the Lynx until Walker was roughed up in the eighth, an Ottawa outburst that only cemented the Tides' fate.
Afterward, good news went to only three Tides. Pitchers Walker and Person and outfielder Alex Ochoa and were told that they would go to New York to join the Mets for the rest of the major league season. ILLUSTRATION: Color AP photo by Dave Chan
Tides starter Chris Roberts battled the Ottawa Lynx and the elements
in the fifth inning before the game was delayed for the first time
Wednesday night. Roberts, making his first start since Aug. 30,
didn't return after the delay and took the loss.
by CNB