Friday, June 7, 1996

Prairied Dogs Clobber White Wings, 9-4

By LANCE FLEMING
Staff Writer

Rod Brewer turned Thursday's game against Rio Grande Valley into his own personal playground, and it led to Abilene's 11th win of the season.

Brewer hit a third-inning grand slam and doubled twice to lead the Prairie Dogs to a 9-4 win over the WhiteWings in front of 983 fans at Scott Field.

The victory pushes the Prairie Dogs to 11-7 on the season, tied with Lubbock for second place in the Texas-Louisiana League standings. Those two clubs will open a big three-game series tonight at Scott Field.

The Prairie Dogs and Crickets are each 11/2 games behind league-leading Amarillo, which lost to Alexandria on Thursday night.

It was Brewer who almost single-handedly kept the Prairie Dogs tied for second as he went 3 for 3 with four RBI.

His biggest hit came in the third inning.

Abilene had fought back from a 2-0 deficit to post a pair of runs in the second inning.

That's when WhiteWing pitchers began to lose their control.

Starter Scott Spaulding loaded the bases before giving way to Oscar Resendez, who walked Tony Rich to force in the go-ahead run. Darryl Monroe then drove in the fourth Abilene run with a fielder's choice, and Scott Bethea walked to re-load the bases.

Tony Rich then scored on a passed ball to make it 5-2 before Manny Gagliano walked to re-load the bases.

That's when Brewer stepped to the plate and ripped a 1-0 fastball from Resendez over the wall in right field for a grand slam to make it 9-2.

"He (Resendez) was struggling, and I was looking for one pitch and I got it," Brewer said. "I just happened to get a good part of the bat on it."

Spaulding and Resendez combined to walk five Prairie Dogs and hit two more in a 35-minute bottom of the third. Abilene took advantage of the wildness by scoring seven runs, all on just two hits.

The third inning made up for the first two innings, which saw the Prairie Dogs leave the bases loaded twice.

"There wasn't any frustration among the players after the first two innings," Brewer said. "You would think there might be, but we have the type of club that's going to keep coming at you. That just happens in baseball. But you just gotta keep coming back."

The nine runs were more than enough for Abilene starter Kerry Knox, who continued to round into form by throwing six innings to pick up his first win of the season.

He gave up 10 hits and four runs, but he really settled down after giving up two runs on three hits in the first inning. The two runs came courtesy of a two-run bomb by Rio Grande first baseman John O'Brien.

After the first inning, Knox retired nine of the next 10 men he faced before giving up a leadoff single in the fifth. That man eventually came around to score to cut the lead to 9-3. Knox gave up another run in the sixth, but that would be all for the WhiteWings.

"At times Kerry did well," Abilene manager Phil Stephenson said. "He struggled a little bit in the fifth and sixth, but I thought that for the most part he threw the ball better. I think he's getting close to the point where he'll give seven or eight good innings."

The WhiteWings took the early lead on O'Brien's blast to left, but the Prairie Dogs came back to tie it in the bottom of the second.

Paul Gonzalez scored to cut the lead to 2-1 on an error by Rio Grande second baseman Pat O'Connor, then Scott Malone scored the tying run on a Darryl Monroe single.