THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, May 21, 1996 TAG: 9605210480
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICH RADFORD, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
The bloop hits and funky bounces were too much for the Norfolk Tides Monday night as the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons carved out a 4-2 victory at Harbor Park.
The Red Barons struck for three runs in the sixth inning without hitting any rockets off Tides starter Mike Fyhrie, who said that's just the kind of luck he's had lately.
First Kevin Sefcik grounded through the right side with one out. Then with hit-and-run on, Ruben Amaro hit a grounder up the middle that deflected off Fyhrie's glove.
``If it doesn't tip off my glove, it's right to Shawn Gilbert (who was covering second on the play),'' Fyhrie said.
``You can't ever control stuff like that. If I have good luck it's caught. There's a fine line between good luck and bad luck.''
With runners at first and third, Gene Schall grounded through the right side to score one run. The Red Barons' Jon Zuber then grounded to Gilbert, who threw wildly to shortstop Luis Rivera while attempting to start a double play.
Howard Battle followed with a run-scoring bloop single to right that was just out of the reach of a diving Gilbert.
David Doster then grounded to short, but was able to stay out of the double play on a bang-bang play at first to score the third run.
With Columbus losing to Rochester, the first-place Tides (21-20) remain a game ahead of the Clippers in the International League West.
But as Fyhrie said, ``We need to start putting some wins together.''
The Red Barons (22-19) added a run in the eighth when Schall led off with a single to center, reached second on a sacrifice and scored on Doster's controversial double down the third-base line.
``I thought the ball turned foul right before it got to the base,'' Tides manager Bobby Valentine said.
``But (umpire Mark Facto) was right there and said he had a good look at it.''
The Tides scored in the bottom of the sixth when Matt Franco hit his team-leading 14th double, advanced on a deep fly to center by Alex Ochoa and scored as Roberto Petagine reached on a fielding error by pitcher Carlos Crawford who was covering first.
Norfolk scored again in the ninth when Gilbert doubled to the gap in left with one out and Ochoa drilled a double to the gap in right with two out. The Red Barons used three pitchers in the inning, with Blake Doolan coaxing Rivera to ground to short and into a force play at second to end it, stranding two runners.
The Tides stranded 13 for the night.
``They did a good job of scoring the runs when they had chances,'' Valentine said. ``In that sixth inning they were all hits, they all count and they did a good job of putting the bat on the ball.
``We get a leadoff double by Alex (Ochoa in the fourth) and can't get him in. We should have picked up a run there. And we had a lot of chances with two outs but didn't do anything.''
NOTES: The Tides activated relief pitcher Brian Bark and placed Jason Bullard on the disabled list with a foot injury, retroactive to last Thursday. flip-flopped. Mike Gardiner (6-0, 1.07) will pitch for the Tides Wednesday, with Robert Person (2-0, 3.32) starting Thursday's game. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by VICKI CRONIS, The Virginian-Pilot
Norfolk Tides catcher Alberto Castillo runs down David Doster of
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre toward third base and tags him out, walking
away as Doster gets his breath on a hot Harbor Park night.
by CNB