Braves roll to 3-0 edge

August 11, 2000|By JACK HILL III

Braves roll to 3-0 edge

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - The Hagerstown Braves rode another solid pitching night to drive the Chambersburg Rockies to the edge of a cliff in the Blue Ridge Adult League championship series.

J.R. Fitzwater polished off a complete-game win early, and Deron Crawford was more than good enough to finish things late as the Braves won 5-3 and 11-1 Thursday night at Henninger Field to take a 3-0 lead in the best-of-7 series.

"Offensively, the guys really helped me out tonight," Crawford said. "We put eight runs on the board in the first two innings. We put it in auto-pilot from there. We turned three double plays on defense tonight."

It was more than enough to back up Crawford in Game 3, who didn't allow an earned run in six innings and gave up only four hits.

His teammates provided the offense, as Pat Sweeney for had two RBI and Scott Frye had a two-run homer over the first two innings.

"It feels good to get ahead early to get our momentum going," Pat Sweeney said. "We were just on a roll from there."

"We hit the ball," Hagerstown player-manager Danny Cunningham said. "Those two-run four innings were huge. Anytime that you can give Deron Crawford a big lead, he is going to hold it for you."

HEIGHT="6" ALT="* "> In Game 2, the Braves completed the last two innings of the suspended game by holding off a late comeback attempt by the Rockies.

Hagerstown has a chance to wrap the series up in a sweep tonight during the fourth game of the series at Chambersburg at 7.

Hagerstown 5, Chambersburg 3

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Woy, Ramsey (5) and Bowman. Fitzwater, Helser (6) and Hearn, Showe (6). WP - Fitzwater (11-0). LP -Woy.

Hagerstown 11, Chambersburg 1

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D. Crawford and Hearn, Showe (6). Pennell, Wagner (1), Ramsey (3) and Bowman. WP - D. Crawford. LP - Pennell. HR-H: Frye (second, one on).