John Gall provided the hitting and Chris Narveson took care of the pitching as Potomac handed Winston-Salem its ninth loss in its past 11 games 3-1 last night at Ernie Shore Field.
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Gall got things going in the top half of the first inning when he reached on a two-out infield single off Warthogs starter Alec Hollifield and advanced to second on Shawn Schumacher's single to left. He scored on Jamie Pogue's RBI single to left field to give Potomac a 1-0 lead.
After ripping a two-out double in the third inning, Gall strolled to the plate in the fifth inning with one on and two out. He promptly deposited a Hollifield pitch over the left-field wall for his second home run of the season, scoring Ramon Carvajal and giving the Cannons a 3-0 lead.
�(Hollifield) came back in with the next pitch and he left it out over the plate a little bit and I just hit the ball out of the park,� Gall, said. �This is the best day hitting that I have had in the minor leagues by far.�
While Gall was producing runs for the Cannons, Narveson was having little trouble holding the Warthogs' struggling offense in check.
Narveson, who is from Arden, recorded his third win in five starts for Potomac by allowing just one unearned run and five hits over 7 2/3 innings while striking out nine and walking one.
The only run the Warthogs could manage came in the bottom half of the sixth inning. Robert Muro doubled off the center-field wall with one out, but Narveson appeared to be out of trouble after striking out Spencer Oborn and getting Jonathan Aceves to ground weakly to third base. However, Gabe Johnson threw the ball away, and the error allowed Muro to score the Warthogs' only run.
Narveson, a second round draft pick of the St. Louis Cardinals who turned down a scholarship offer from Wake Forest to sign for $675,000 in 2000, was in control from the start. Besides scoring the unearned run in the sixth, Winston-Salem seriously threatened Narveson only once, in the bottom of the second inning.
�I thought like I had pretty good stuff tonight,� Narveson said. �Every time I go out I feel like I pitch my best, because you are always learning something new.�
The Warthogs loaded the bases with two singles and a walk in the bottom of the second. However, Winston-Salem, which ranks sixth in the eight- team Carolina League in hitting, failed to get the ball past Narveson. He fielded a ground ball off the bat of Brett Caradonna and threw out Muro at home for the second out of the inning and fanned Amaury Pena to end the threat.
�Luckily the ball wasn't hit very hard back at me so I got a chance to make a play,� Narveson said of Caradonna's ground ball. �I just looked up and got him at home. That was the turning point of the game for me, just going out and being able to go get them. That helped me out a lot tonight.�
POT. ab r h bi W-S ab r h bi
Crisp, lf 5 0 0 0 Drham, cf 4 0 1 0
Carjl, ss 5 1 2 0 Nicsn, 2b 4 0 0 0
Gall, 1b 5 2 5 2 Hankns, 1b 4 0 0 0
Baley, 1b 0 0 0 0 Muro, 3b 3 1 2 0
Schker, c 5 0 2 0 Oborn, rf 4 0 1 0
Pogue, dh 3 0 1 1 Acvas, c 3 0 1 0
Hanes, rf 4 0 1 0 Gacia, dh 3 0 0 0
Wilms, rf 0 0 0 0 Cardna, lf 4 0 0 0
Herdz, cf 3 0 1 0 Pena, ss 3 0 0 0
Jhson, 3b 4 0 1 0
Tmes, 2b 4 0 0 0
Totals 38 3 13 3 Totals 32 1 5 0
Potomac 100 020 000 � 3 13 1 Winston-Salem 000 001 000 � 1 5 1
E�Johnson ; LOB � Cannons 10, Hogs 7; 2B � Gall, Durham, Muro; HR �Gall ; DP � Hogs 2.
Potomac IP H R ER BB SO
Narveson, W, 3-0 7.2 5 1 0 1 9
Kohl 0.1 0 0 0 1 0
Layfield S 1.0 0 0 0 0 0
W-Salem IP H R ER BB SO
Hollifield, L, 0-8 5.0 7 3 3 1 5
Patten 1.0 2 0 0 0 0
McDaniel 1.0 2 0 0 1 0
Murray 2.0 2 0 0 0 0
T � 2:42; A � 2,900.