Large crowd sees Dash 'Cruz' to 8-3 victory

The best crowd of the season brought out the best in the Winston-Salem Dash last night at Wake Forest Baseball Park.

Lee Cruz drove in five runs to carry the Dash past the Kinston Indians 8-3 and back into first place in the first-half race of the Carolina League's Southern Division. But Cruz, a 25-year-old outfielder in his second season in Winston-Salem, had to share the spotlight with a crowd of 1,912, more than twice as big as the previous best of 901.

Cruz attributed his three-hit performance at least partly to the festive Saturday-night atmosphere.

"It's nice, because we just came from Myrtle Beach and they draw a good crowd over there," Cruz said. "It's fun to play in front of.

"To come back to this, it wasn't too bad. We had a good time. It's always fun when we have a good crowd out here."

One night after leapfrogging the Dash into first place, the Salem Avalanche lost last night to the Frederick Keys 8-4. So the Dash will go into today's series finale, set for 2 p.m., a half-game ahead of the Avalanche and a full game ahead of the Indians.

"We played a very good ballgame," Manager Joe McEwing said. "We pitched well, played defense well and got some big, timely hits."

Right-hander Charlie Shirek, who leads the Carolina League with seven victories, is scheduled to make his 10th start today for the Dash. Shirek is 7-1 with an earned-run average of 3.96.

Left-hander Eric Berger (3-2, 2.44) is scheduled to start for the Indians.

President Kevin Terry of the Dash said he expects attendance to increase significantly now that the club has announced it will play the rest of the season at Wake Forest Baseball Park. The Dash began the season expecting to move into a new ballpark near downtown, until delays in construction pushed back the opening until next spring.

"What it is, is all the group sales we had booked at the new ball park, we're now in the process of transferring over to the old park," Terry said. "So from here until the end of the year now, we'll have all of them attending games.

"We had about 25,000-plus group tickets that were sold for the new park. But because we got started so late here at this park, it took us a little time to get everything transferred over. Now it's starting to happen.

"It's been a lot of fun. The fans have been getting into it tonight. It's been a great night for us."

The Dash supported a strong start from Anthony Carter with 12 hits, all of them singles. Cruz had three and Dale Mollenhauer, Greg Paiml and Salvador Sanchez had two apiece. But one of the biggest hits of the night was delivered by Kyle Shelton, promoted earlier in the day from Kannapolis of the Class A South Atlantic League.

The Dash had grabbed a 3-2 lead in the third on Cruz' two-run single off starter Russell Young. Shelton, batting ninth, stepped to the plate in the fourth with Sanchez on third and Mike Grace on second with one out.

Shelton rapped a 1-1 pitch back through the box to drive home both runners, extending the Dash's lead to 5-2. Jim Gallagher kept the rally going with a two-out walk and Cruz followed with his second two-run single in successive innings to push the lead to 7-2.

Cruz's five RBIs tied for the most this season by a Dash hitter. Brent Morel had five RBIs against Wilmington on April 26.

"The last three or four games he's had some outstanding at-bats," McEwing said of Cruz. "He's being aggressive. He's staying back. And he's on time.

"That's all you can control. You can't control the results. And he's getting the results right now."

That was more than enough for Carter, who gave up two runs on eight hits through seven innings. He improved to 4-3 and sliced his ERA to 4.81.

"He attacked the zone, and he limited the damage," McEwing said. "When they had runners in scoring position, he did a good job of damage control, and that's all you can expect."

McEwing said that Morel, a third baseman who has been sidelined since May 23 with a tight hamstring, should be back in the lineup for today's game. Morel is batting .267 and leads the Dash with seven homers and 13 stolen bases.

The Dash and Indians will complete their three-game series today at 2 p.m.

■ Dan Collins can be reached at 727-7323 or at dcollins@wsjournal.com.

KIN. ab r h bi W-S ab r h bi

Fedroff cf 3 1 2 0 Mllher 2b 4 2 2 0

Phelps 2b 3 0 1 0 Paiml ss 4 1 2 1

Chsnhll 3b 4 0 0 1 Galghr 1b 2 1 1 0

Rckngl 1b 4 0 0 0 Cruz lf 4 0 3 5

Rivas ss 4 1 1 0 Marrero rf 4 0 0 0

Montero lf 4 1 2 1 Sanchez cf 4 1 2 0

Martinez c 4 0 0 1 Grace dh 3 1 0 0

Blair rf 4 0 3 0 Jhnsn c 4 1 1 0

Willard dh 3 0 0 0 Shelton 3b 4 1 1 2

Totals 33 3 9 3 Totals 33 8 12 8

Kinston 020 000 010 -- 3
Winston-Salem 102 401 00x -- 8

DP--Kinston 1, Winston-Salem 2. LOB--Kinston 5, Winston-Salem 4. 2B--Fedroff, Phelps. 3B--Montero, Blair. SB--Phelps, Mollenhauer 2, Gallagher. CS--Sanchez.

Kinston IP H R ER BB SO

Young, L (0-3) 32/3 8 7 7 2 4

Turek 21/3 3 1 1 0 1

Landis 2 1 0 0 0 2

Winston-Salem IP H R ER BB SO

Carter, W (4-3) 7 8 2 2 1 3

Perez 1/3 1 1 1 0 0

Jones 12/3 0 0 0 0 1

HBP--by Young (Grace). T--2:31. A--1,912