DATE: Monday, April 21, 1997                TAG: 9704210165

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C6   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY STEVE NEWMAN, CORRESPONDENT 

DATELINE: OTTAWA                            LENGTH:   58 lines

TIDES USE 8-RUN RALLY IN 9TH TO WIN

The Norfolk Tides waited until the ninth inning to wake up. ... and when they did it put Ottawa to sleep.

Trailing 4-0, the Tides scored eight times to dump the Lynx 8-4 Sunday afternoon for a dramatic International League victory.

Norfolk, taking batting practice for the first time in five days, collected 11 hits, but seven came in the eight-run ninth.

Angel Jaime, 24, who joined the Tides from the Florida State League Saturday, collected a two-run single his first Triple-A plate appearance - for the tying and winning runs.

``I just went to the plate to make some contact,'' said the Dominican Republic native, as the Tides took three games in the four-game series.

Jaime's hit was the second such pinch-hit effort of the ninth-inning rally.

Todd Pratt's RBI single cut the lead to 4-2 and Luis Lopez kept the two-out rally alive with his third double for another run.

``Definitely I don't want to be here,'' said Lopez, who was part of the San Diego Padres' playoff drive in 1996.

``I want to be in the big leagues, but I want to show them I can play there,'' added Lopez, who went 4 for 5.

The Tides continued their rally as Jason Hardtke followed Lopez with a walk.

``It just shows how loose that 27th out can be,'' said Ottawa manager Pat Kelly.

Relief pitcher Curt Schmidt was looking for a record-breaking 31st save in Lynx history, but didn't get it as he was tagged for five hits and four earned runs over 1 2/3 innings.

The last of those five hits came from Pratt, hitting for catcher Charlie Greene, with an run-scoring single to cut the Lynx lead to 4-2.

However, reliever Rick DeHart was tagged with Jaime's hit and Scott McClain's three-homer homer for insurance, to fall to 0-3.

Ottawa appeared headed for a series split after reliever Takashi Kashiwada's disastrous eighth-inning appearance.

``No good, no control,'' said Kashiwada in halting English, after earlier this month becoming the first Yomiuri Giant from Japan to sign a major-league contract.

Ottawa nursed a 1-0 lead entering the eighth, but added three runs as Kashiwada hit the first batter and walked the next two.

Both sides got exceptional pitching for seven innings as Norfolk starter Juan Acevedo tossed a six-hitter for seven innings.

Ottawa's Tavo Alvarez threw a two-hitter for six innings while striking out six and walking only one.

Ottawa got the game's only run over the first seven innings with a heads-up play by Ryan McGuire in the fourth. He doubled off Acevedo and advanced to third on a groundout.

The next Lynx batter, Billy Lott, hit a soft liner deep to second baseman Jason Hardtke, but McGuire tagged up and was called safe on a close play at the plate.

Lopez hit back-to-back doubles into the gap, but was stranded each time - at third when Roberto Petagine struck out in the fourth, and at second when Hardtke and Phil Geisler both went down swinging to end the sixth.

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