
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 22, 1993                   TAG: 9307220175
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

WILMINGTON BAFFLES BUCS 6-3 ROCKS' PITCHING PROVES TOO MUCH

Once right-handed pitcher Melvin Bunch was persuaded to take the rest of the night off, baseball came to be a much less tortuous game for the Salem Buccaneers.

After being the victims of a perfect-game bid by the Wilmington Blue Rocks' pitcher through 5 innings and being held hitless for six, the Bucs showed some brain waves in the last three innings. All that served to do was make the Bucs a better looking corpse as the Blue Rocks prevailed 6-3 in a Carolina League game between teams from different divisions Wednesday.

The Bucs' Ramon Espinosa continued his recent surge with a home run starting the seventh and breaking break up the no-hitter.

Espinosa led off the ninth with a single, and Ken Bonifay's 18th home run - Bunch was gone and David Bladow pitching - brought the Bucs to three runs down. More hope came with a Mike Brown double and a Trace Ragland walk.

The rally fizzled after that.

Bunch, a 21-year-old baby-faced Texan, was making his second Carolina League start.

"I'm finally learning the value of hitting spots, and I did that tonight about 85 percent of the time," he said.

Back-to-back sixth-inning walks - to No. 9 hitter Marcus Hanel and Kevin Polcovich - with two outs ruined the perfect game.

"I hoped to just throw the ball past the leadoff guy, but it got away from me," Bunch said. "But that didn't affect me on the mound. I was still calm."

Bunch ended with 11 strikeouts and two walks.

Less impressive was Bucs starter Troy Mooney, who almost didn't make it out of the first inning and ended up allowing six runs before Salem even batted. \ BUCSHOTS: Espinosa went 2-for-4 and has 11 hits in his past 20 at-bats, including seven hits in his past nine at bats to go with seven RBI. . . . Wilmington has won six of 10 and has taken 10 of 14 from Salem.a

NEXT UP: Salem's Michel LaPlante (1-1, 4.86 ERA) vs. Wilmington's Hector Wagner (1-2, 2.18) at Municipal Field. Game time is 7 p.m. Ticket prices: $5 (box); $4 (reserved); $3 (general admission); $1 off for children 12 and younger and senior citizens.

by CNB