Sunday, June 2, 1996

PDogs win thriller before largest crowd

By AL PICKETT
Sports Editor

The largest crowd of the season was treated to the most entertaining game of the year Saturday night.

Paul Gonzales' line-drive double to left field brought home Jack Johnson withthe winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning to give the Abilene Prairie Dogs a dramatic 6-5 victory over the Alexandria Aces before 2,058 fans at Scott Field.

Johnson led off the eighth with a bloop single that shortstop Rick Bender couldn't come up with.
Scott Malone moved Johnson to second with a sacrifice bunt. Gonzales then took an outside fastball and lined it over leftfielder Jay Andrews' head to bring in Johnson with the winning run.

Reliever Ken Winkle then retired Alexandria in order in the ninth, striking out two of the three batters he faced to record his third save of the season.

"They saw a pretty good game," Abilene manager Phil Stephenson said of the crowd. "They scored, we came back, they scored and we came back again. That's what it's all about. We've done that a bunch this year. I like that. We had a bunch of big hits with two outs."

The game started with offensive fireworks. Alexandria scored two runs in the top of the first on Joe Ronca's two-run triple.

But Abilene countered with three runs of its own in the bottom of the first. Darryl Monroe led off with a single. Then with two outs, Rod Brewer blasted perhaps the longest home run hit at Scott Field, a towering blast that cleared both fences in right field.

"That's all I've got," Brewer said. "I got every ounce of it."

Paul Coleman followed the long home run with a single, Johnson walked and Malone knocked in Coleman with an RBI single up the middle to give the Prairie Dogs a 3-2 lead.

Starting pitchers Tony Mack of Alexandria and Kerry Knox of Abilene settled down after the first, turning the game into a pitcher's duel, although neither figured in the final decision.

It remained 3-2 until the Aces regained the lead with three runs in the sixthinning. Frank Turco led off the sixth with a single. With one out, Kyle Shade singled, causing Stephenson to bring in Scott Jones from the bullpen to replace Knox.

But it didn't take the Aces long to get to Jones.

On his first offering, Joe Ronca doubled to drive in Turco. On the next pitch, Jones threw a wild pitch, allowing Shade to score the go-ahead run. Andrews then delivered a sacrifice fly to give Alexandria a 5-3 advantage.

But Abilene tied the game with a pair of runs in the seventh. Second baseman Eric Gonzalez, who is only 5-feet, 4-inches tall, homered to right field to cut the deficit in half.

Then with two outs, Scott Bethea and Manny Gagliano collected back-to-back singles, and Brewer then fisted a looper into shallow right field to drive in Bethea with the tying run.

"He threw a great pitch," said Brewer, who was 3 for 4. "I got away with an off-the-handle shot. I was lucky to get it over the second baseman."

Jones (1-1), who pitched 22/3 innings in relief got the win, while reliever Eric Moran (1-2) took the loss for the Aces.

The win improved the Prairie Dogs' record to 8-6, keeping Abilene 21/2 games behind league-leading Amarillo.