Kinston beats Keys

By News-Argus Staff
Published in Sports on July 26, 2005 2:06 PM

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Frederick committed a season-high six errors as Kinston stopped James Johnson from becoming the first Keys pitcher to win 10 games since 1999 as the Tribe posted a 9-3 win on Monday night.

Nick Markakis gave the Keys an early lead in the bottom of the second inning, planting the Sean Smith offering over the left field wall for his 12th home run of the season to put the Keys ahead 1-0.

Johnson cruised until the fifth inning, when David Wallace led off the inning with a single. Chris De La Cruz reached on a bunt single and advanced to second on a throwing error by Bryan Bass. Mike Conroy followed with a double to left center to score Wallace and De La Cruz. Conroy would later score when Stephen Head's ground ball to Gera Alvarez that was bobbled, preventing a force out at second. With two outs Mike Butia double to center field to drive in Head and Rodney Choy Foo, both runs unearned, to give the Indians a 5-1 lead.

The Keys closed the gap to three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning after Gera Alvarez drew a walk from Smith. Dan Eisentrager came on in relief and promptly allowed a double to Brian Bock, letting Alvarez score from first.

Kinston would put three more runs on the board in the top of the eighth, highlighted by a Conroy home run off David Haehnel, his fifth, to put the Indians ahead 8-2.

Jeff Fiorentino would hit a homer of his own in the bottom half of the inning, a solo shot good for his 10th of the season to bring the score to 8-3, but that would be all the offense the Keys could manage, as the Indians would tack on one more run in the top of the ninth on a Ryan Goleski RBI single, to give Kinston the 9-3 victory.

Johnson (9-5) took the loss snapping his four game winning streak, allowing five runs, three earned, over five innings. Richard Salazar tossed two scoreless innings before Jeff Montani and David Haehnel each gave up two in a combined two innings of relief.

Smith (4-5) earned the victory, lasting 62/3 innings, allowing just two runs on four hits, while striking out four. Eisentrager allowed a run on two hits over 21/3 innings.