DATE: Tuesday, May 20, 1997                 TAG: 9705200234

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY RICH RADFORD, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   67 lines

NORFOLK RUNS OUT OF LUCK THIS TIME THE TIDES ARE UNABLE TO RALLY FROM A THIRD DEFICIT AGAINST THE KNIGHTS.

All of these come-from-behind victories make for exciting baseball, but as Tides third baseman Scott McClain said following Norfolk's 7-4 loss to Charlotte Monday night, ``the luck was bound to run out.''

The Tides (25-19) spotted the Knights leads three times, which was one too many, and dropped one game behind division-leading Toledo in the International League West while bunching up the race. Charlotte (22-19) is in fourth place, but is only 2 1/2 games off the lead.

This game appeared it would be a low-scoring affair between two previously unbeaten pitchers - Charlotte's Chris Seelbach and Norfolk's Brian Bohanon. But once the runs started crossing the plate in the fourth inning, it became a consistent pattern.

The Knights scored twice in the fourth when Chris Sheff reached on an infield single with one out, Chris Clapinski doubled, Lou Lucca lifted a sacrifice fly to center and Pookie Wilson rapped a run-scoring single to left.

Norfolk scored two of its own in the fourth on a Roberto Petagine double followed by consecutive singles by Phil Geisler, McClain and Todd Pratt.

Charlotte's Dave Berg homered in the top of the fifth, but Petagine matched it in the bottom of the inning.

Charlotte regained the lead in the sixth on a two-run home run by Lucca off Bohanon that bounced off the concession stand beyond leftfield.

Norfolk cut the advantage to 5-4 on a 430-foot shot by McClain in the bottom of the sixth.

But the Knights added two more runs in the seventh. Reliever Jimmy Myers walked Alex Cole to lead off, then Berg doubled to score Cole. After Bob Natal flew out, Myers intentionally walked Russ Morman.

Tides manager Rick Dempsey had a meeting with the infielders at the mound to discuss strategy. But when Petagine snuck behind Morman at first for a pickoff attempt, Myers was called for a balk by first base umpire Paul Nauert, drawing a heated dispute from Dempsey and Myers.

``He said Jimmy stopped his motion to first,'' Dempsey said. ``He didn't stop, but he slowed his momentum, which gave the umpire a chance to make that call.''

What irritated Dempsey most was that the Tides worked on that exact play in a special session prior to the game.

Norfolk then chose to intentionally walk Clapinski to load the bases. Lucca then walked on four pitches to bump the lead to 7-4.

Once Charlotte reliever Rey Mendoza came on with one out in the sixth and coaxed Chris Saunders into an inning-ending double play, Norfolk failed to get a runner beyond second base.

The Tides won 3 of 5 against the Knights in this series, but trailed in four of the games.

``I don't expect our starting pitchers, who were really good at the start of the season, will be mired in these two-, three- and four-inning starts forever,'' Dempsey said. ``But I need a good seven- or eight-inning game from somebody and they're overdue.''

McClain had a different twist on that theory.

``We need to score some early runs, get our pitchers on top and let them work with a lead,'' McClain said. ``I know it's got to be tough on a starter to feel like you have to shut a team down for the first four or five innings every night.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

LAWRENCE JACKSON/The Virginian-Pilot

Roberto Petagine of the Tides slides home safely on Phil Geisler's

single as Charlotte catcher Alex Delgado is unable to handle the

throw.

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