Bison Games Stories - June Archive

Bison’s turn the Tides

Buffalo 5 Norfolk 4

By Dave Ricci

June 3, 2003

Guess the Bison’s just needed a little home cooking. After a dismal road trip through Louisville and Columbus that saw the Herd drop seven of eight the Bison’s returned home to beat the Norfolk Tides, 5-4 Tuesday night in front of an announced crowd of 5,419 at Dunn Tire Park.

Bison’s skipper Marty Brown said, “Every game that we’ve been in lately has been close with the exception of one against Richmond where it was kind of a blowout. But yeah to be on the losing end (of close games) and watch the guys battle, I feel good for them that they finally came out on the winning end.”

Victor Martinez went 2-for-3 for Buffalo (30-24) with a walk, two RBI and a run scored. Martinez was one of the few bright spots on the recent road trip as he batted .536 with five runs and five RBI. Martinez has been lethal on the road amassing a season batting average of .336.

But the friendly confines of Dunn Tire Park haven’t been very friendly, as Martinez has struggled with a .174 mark coming into this home stand.

Brown said, “Maybe he’s putting a little extra pressure on himself at home. He loves to play here, I know that, maybe he wants to do a little more to show the people here that he really wants to play hard for them.”

Buffalo built a 4-1 lead over the first three innings, but they also stranded seven runners in that same time frame.

Norfolk (30-25) pulled with in one run with runs in the fourth, fifth and ninth. In the top of the ninth with two on and two out, Bison reliever Chad Paronto got Lyle Mouton to hit into a 5-3 groundout to end the game.

Paronto (eighth save) also closed the door on a Tide eighth inning rally when he K’d Gil Velazquez with bases juiced.

Lance Caraccioli (2-2) worked six innings for the victory while Jason Middlebrook (4-2) took the loss.

Luis Garcia hit his sixth home run of the year for Buffalo. Every Bison reached base at least one. Jorge Toca had two RBI for the Tides and Esix Snead had two runs scored.

Buffalo’s Jamie Brown (4-2) will face Phil Seibel (0-0) on Wednesday; 7:05 p.m. start.

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