Friday, September 13, 1996

Prairie Dogs take another one from Crickets

By AL PICKETT
Sports Editor

LUBBOCK - Two down, one to go.

With the Priairie Dogs' 8-3 victory over the Lubbock Crickets Thurday night, Abilene has put Lubbock in a two-games-to-none stranglehold with the series set to return to Abilene Saturday.

Abilene starting pitcher Kerry Knox was stellar, outdueling Lubbock's Ron Gerstine, who led the Texas-Louisiana League in wins with 14 this season.

"The guys played good behind me, Jack (Johnson) called a great game and the defense made some great plays when they needed to," Knox said. "My fastball was a little off early, but I was hitting spots well. It finally came around in the last few innings."

Along with Knox's fastball, the Prairie Dogs' offense finally broke through the maze of missed chances which had befuddled it throghout the series.

Through the first six innings, Abilene left six runners on base. The Dogs had two runners on base in both the first and second innings but was unable to score against Gerstine.

However, the many pitches the Dogs forced Gerstine to throw in extracating himself from his many jams finally caught up with him in the seventh inning.

In that frame, Abilene loaded the bases with one out and League MVP Rod Brewer at bat. However, Brewer flied out to left fielder Derrick Vaughn, leaving the Dogs 3-12 in the series with runners in scoring position.

"We blew some opportunities early, but that's just part of it," said Abilene manager Phil Stephenson. "That's a good team over there (Lubbock) and they've played together enough to know how to get out of jams."

However, Paul Coleman finally broke through for the Dogs, scorching a low liner up the middle which scored both Bethea and Eric Gonzalez, who had reached on a single. The two run frame gave Abilene a 4-2 lead. Greg Bicknell came on for the Crickets to record the final out of the seventh, but the damage had been done. In addition, Stephenson's game plan had worked nearly to perfection.

"The last two nights, our plans have worked as well as we could have hoped," Stephenson said. "We wanted to make their starters throw a lot of pitches early so we could get to their bullpen as soon as possible."

The Dogs continued to maul the Crickets' bullpen in the eighth and ninth innings as well, scoring twice in each frame. Scott Bethea, in the eighth, laced the hit which put the game out of reach. With Paul Gonzalez on second base with a leadoff double, Bethea smacked a triple down the right field line which scored Gonzalez. In addition, Lubbock shortstop Paul Petrulis' throw to third was wild, allowing Bethea to scamper home, giving the Dogs a 6-2 advantage.

The Dogs then tacked on two runs in the ninth on a Manny Gagliano double, which scored both Barry Jones and Rod Brewer who began the inning with back-to-back singles off of Lubbock's Scott Zonger.

The only suspense for Abilene in the end came in Kerry Knox's bid for a complete-game victory. However, that bid was spoiled as the Crickets struck for a run in the bottom of the ninth, cutting the lead to 8-3. Stephenson then called upon Troy Dean Conkle, who retired Mike Hardge to complete the win.

"Jack Johnson called a great game and Kerry pitched magnificently," said Stephenson.