Thursday, June 26, 1997

White Wings pull away for win

By LANCE FLEMING / Abilene Reporter-News

The Abilene Prairie Dogs once again dug themselves a big hole Wednesday night, but this time it was one from which they couldn't recover.

Rio Grande Valley scored four runs in the first inning and then pulled away from Abilene again late for a 10-6 win over the Prairie Dogs in front of 961 fans at Scott Field.

Of the six games in the homestand, Abilene fell behind early in four of them. They recovered to win three of them, but Wednesday night's 4-0 deficit was too much to overcome.

Abilene starter Troy Hirsch gave up six hits and five runs in five innings of work, but four of those runs and three of those hits came in the first inning. Shortstop Jason Keith also made an error on a potential double play ball that led to two runs.

Mike Groppuso had a two-run single in the frame, and Mike Cantu added an RBI single.

After one-half inning the Dogs found themselves down 4-0 and found themselves with one frustrated manager.

"I've told the pitchers that we can't keep getting down that big so early in the game," Abilene manager Barry Jones said. "We can't keep coming back from 5-0 and 4-0. And then we can't make errors on top of that. I swear, I think we've made like 40 errors in the last week. We get guys in the right places and then we don't make plays."

The Prairie Dogs, though, did make a game of it in the second and third innings, scoring two runs in each frame to tie the game at 4-4.

Mike Vallarelli had a two-run double in the second and Manny Gagliano had an RBI double and Jason McClure a sacrifice fly in the third to tie the game.

But Hirsch immediately gave up the lead in the top of the fourth when he gave up a lead single to Cantu. He got to second on a wild pitch, to third on a groundball out and scored on a sacrifice fly by Jess Olivares.

The WhiteWings tacked on another run in the sixth when Kevin Clark scored on a wild pitch.

Abilene, though, made it a one-run game in the bottom of the seventh when Gagliano doubled home Scott Bethea.

But Rio Grande tacked on two runs in the eighth and two more in the ninth to put the game away. Bethea made a throwing error in the eighth that scored one run, and Jay Davis added an RBI single.

In the ninth, Jess Olivares ripped a two-run double to make it a 10-6 game.

It all left Jones scratching his head over the state of a team that can't seem to get on a roll.

"We made a lot of mistakes tonight Q physical and mental Q that cost us," Jones said. "We can't keep giving team's chances to beat us, and tonight we gave them plenty of chances."