THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, May 20, 1996 TAG: 9605200150
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE BATISTA, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: PAWTUCKET, R.I. LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
You could call it a baseball hangover.
After combining for 21 runs Saturday night, the Norfolk Tides and Pawtucket Red Sox had only four runs between them Sunday afternoon. A two-run sixth inning by the Tides was the difference in their 3-1 win at McCoy Stadium.
Norfolk took three of four in the series from the PawSox and has won 15 of its last 18 at McCoy dating back to 1994.
The only run Tides starter Juan Acevedo (2-2) allowed was a T.R. Lewis home run in the fourth inning. Acevedo gave up five hits, walked two and struck out seven in seven innings.
Derek Wallace pitched the last two innings, for his fourth save.
``There were two good pitchers going, but we had an inning and they didn't,'' said Tides manager Bobby Valentine. ``We showed some resiliency after last night's loss. We got the big hits when we needed them.
``There are a lot of teams in the race right now. But when you have good pitching you can stay in the hunt for a long time.''
Norfolk's first run came in the first and was unearned. With one out, Alex Ochoa reached on an error and went to second on Roberto Petagine's fielder's choice. Benny Agbayani singled up the middle off Pawtucket starter Jeff Suppan to score Ochoa and give Norfolk a 1-0 lead.
Things heated up in the top of the sixth. Pawtucket manager Buddy Bailey was ejected by home plate umpire Pat Connors for arguing a 1-2 pitch to Jason Hardtke that was called a ball. Hardtke drew a leadoff walk. He advanced to third on a double by Matt Franco.
With runners on second and third and no outs, the PawSox conceded Hardtke's run when Ochoa grounded to second. Next came a Petagine single that scored Franco and put Norfolk up 3-1.
Suppan (4-3), started the game with a 2.52 ERA, 43 strikeouts and six walks. He allowed six hits, struck out four and walked two in seven innings.
Juan Bell led off the home half of the eighth with the third of his three hits - a single - and on came Wallace, who hit Rudy Pemberton to put runners on first and second with nobody out. But the Tides escaped when Petagine caught Lewis' popped bunt and doubled Bell off second to complete the double play, the third one turned by the Tides.
Wallace got into a mild jam in the ninth when he issued a one-out walk to Alan Zinter and balked him to second. But he got Pork Chop Pough to ground out and struck out Jose Malave to end it. ILLUSTRATION: BOX SCORE
STANDINGS
GAMEWATCH
[For a copy of the charts, see microfilm for this date.]
by CNB