Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 15, 1993 TAG: 9304150183
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
BUCS OUTLAST WILMINGTON
Thirteen pitchers, 35 hits, 23 runs, four errors, 14 innings, 4 hours, 15 minutes - you get the picture.Pitching took a beating Wednesday night and everybody got tired in yet another wild and woolly Carolina League baseball game at Salem Municipal Field.
It wasn't so woolly or wild for a while until the 14th, when Salem's Chance Sanford hit a two-out single to right that scored Don Garvey with the winning run for a 12-11 Buccaneers' victory over the Wilmington (Del.) Blue Rocks.
From the eighth inning on, when Wilmington's Hugh Walker scored Michael Tucker with a sacrifice fly to tie the score at 11, the pitching took over.
It was about time. The bats didn't stop banging for most of the first eight innings.
Before that, there had been six lead changes. The last of those came in the seventh, when the Bucs rallied for two runs off left-hander Francisco Baez, the third of the Blue Rocks' five pitchers.
Salem's Jon Farrell got it going with a leadoff double and Trace Ragland followed with a bunt single. Farrell scored on pinch hitter Joe Calder's deep fly to right and Ragland came in on Sanford's one-out grounder to first, putting the Bucs ahead 11-10.
Wilmington, which came in leading the Northern Division by a game, wasn't down long. Tucker, the former Olympian and No. 1 draft choice out of Longwood College, came up with his third single of the night and promptly stole his second base and fifth of the season. In the process, Bucs catcher Angelo Encarnacion delivered an errant throw to second that ended in center field. Tucker ended on third. One out later, he came in for his fourth run of the game.
In a game that had plenty of offensive heroes, the Bucs' Tony Womack came through with a nailbiter of an inside-the-park home run in the fourth that scored three runs and gave the Bucs a 7-4 lead. Marty Neff also went 4-for-6 with three RBI.