Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 12, 1995 TAG: 9508140137
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In the world of commerce, you're always best advised to save your hardest work and most inspired job performance for those occasions when the heavy hitters from corporate headquarters pay a visit.
So too in professional baseball.
Brawny right-hander Brent Crowther required just one hour, 28 minutes to mow down the Durham Bulls 2-0 in the seven-inning first game of a Carolina League double-header Friday before 4,241 customers at brand-new Salem Memorial Baseball Stadium.
The good mood didn't last though. Durham put together a depressing seventh-inning comeback in the nightcap, scoring three unearned runs after two were out to claim a 5-4 victory.
The Avs (25-23) closed ground on the first place Kinston Indians in the Southern Division standings with the split of the twin bill. With Kinston (27-22) losing 3-1 to the Wilmington Blue Rocks, Salem is now 11/2 games behind the Indians.
Admiring Crowther's performance from their perch behind the plate were Colorado Rockies general manager Bob Gebhard and farm director Dick Balderson. Gebhard made it a point to seek out the 6-foot-4, 221-pound Canadian to offer best wishes.
``Nice job,'' the GM said. ``Way to battle.''
If this was a battle, it would have been the Bulls running up the white flag. Crowther scattered four hits.
If he was even the slightest bit distracted by the brass, he wasn't letting on.
``You just have to go out and do what you usually do and throw strikes and do your job,'' he said.
Crowther threw strikes, all right. A lot of them. The Bulls got no free passes from this Vancouverite. Meanwhile, he was retiring six of them via strikeout.
The job was made a trifle easier by his associates on offense. The Avalanche scored twice in the first inning off Bulls starter Jamie Arnold but didn't get much going after that.
``Maybe he was trying to feel his way along in the first inning there,'' said Salem's Forry Wells, whose run-scoring single plated one of the first inning runs. ``And we had an advantage because we saw him last week and knew what to expect.
``But give him credit. He settled down and did what he had to do after that.''
In the second game, the credit went to a determined group of Bulls.
``Outstanding,'' Durham manager Matt West said. ``They showed some character in that one after Salem had played well in both games.''
Chris Sexton's throwing error at short with Salem leading 4-2 in the ninth opened the door for the big inning. David Toth led off the frame with a solo home run, one of two in the game (Salem's John Giudice had the other, a two-run job and the first homer by a Salem hitter in the new park, in the fourth).
Reliever Scott LaRock gave way to Matt Aminoff with one out and one on and immediately coaxed a fly ball out from Brett Newell. Then came Sexton's gaffe, quickly followed by three consecutive singles punctuated with a run-scoring wild pitch.
``Two good games, one bad inning,'' Salem manager Bill Hayes said. ``Things had been going so well, too. We'd been getting some hits, making some plays. Even made a diving play.''
That was by second baseman Vicente Garcia that saved the go-ahead run in the seventh. Durham found a way to get over that, too.
The final blow came after the Bulls Wonderful Monds had been heaved in the middle of his at-bat for arguing balls and strikes.
Pinch hitter Jamie Hicks then delivered the game-winner on the first pitch from Aminoff, gently nudging a single to left.
NOTES: The teams combined for five double plays in the two games, three of those by the Avalanche. ... Chris Sexton's error was the only one of the two games. ... Durham has won six of its last seven games and at 23-25 is only 3 1/2 games out of first place. ... Salem's Yohel Pozo had a five-game hitting streak snapped when he went 0-for-3 with three ground ball outs in the second game. Pozo, a catcher, is batting .310 (9-for-29) since being recalled from Asheville on Aug. 1.
see microfilm for box score
by CNB