THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 5, 1996 TAG: 9607050256
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICH RADFORD, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: 51 lines
Matt Franco was the equivalent of a dirty word Thursday night at The Diamond.
The Norfolk Tides third baseman disappointed the second-largest crowd ever at the 12-year-old facility with his glove in the eighth inning and his bat in the ninth as the Tides came from behind to beat the Richmond Braves 7-3.
The outcome doused the enthusiasm of a crowd of 12,710, many of whom came as much to see an extravagant post-game fireworks display as they did the last-place Braves (37-49).
Franco stopped a potential Braves rally in the eighth when he backhanded a sharp grounder by Raul Rodarte with two runners on, stepped on the bag at third and threw to first for an inning-ending double play. That play also turned Rick Trlicek (2-4), who had come on to face Rodarte, into a two-pitch winner.
Franco then came to the plate with the bases loaded and no outs in the ninth and ripped a two-run double, his 22nd of the season, to start a four-run rally.
``I've really been struggling defensively lately, but we've still been winning,'' said Franco, who has committed 14 errors this season. ``It feels great to make a play like that.
``I can't remember the last time we lost two in a row and it would have been a long bus ride to Scranton if we'd lost this one. Now we've got the momentum going again.''
The Tides (51-33) haven't lost two straight since June 14, winning 15 of their last 20 games to build what is now a five-game lead in the International League West Division. They now begin a four-game series against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons.
While Franco keyed the Tides' ninth, it was a walk drawn by Benny Agbayani that was the turning point.
The Tides were trailing 3-2 in the top of the eighth when Agbayani survived a 13-pitch at-bat to draw a one-out walk against Braves reliever Joe Borowski. Roberto Petagine doubled down the leftfield line to drive in Agbayani and tie it up.
``That was a great at-bat that won't show up in the box score,'' Franco said. ``He fouls off who-knows-how-many pitches to get us going. We didn't have anything going until that.''
Richmond scored three runs off Tides starter Rick Reed. In the third, a Pablo Martinez sacrifice fly with one out plated Joe Ayrault, who had singled. In the fourth the Braves strung together a double by Aldo Pecorilli and run-scoring singles by Rodarte and Ayrault.
The Tides had scored twice in the second when Agbayani and Petagine both singled to start the inning and were eventually driven in by Luis Rivera, who grounded out to short, and Chris Howard, who singled up the middle. by CNB