Sacrifice Bunt

At the beginning of the season, Glenelg softball coach Chuck Struhar said his young team was a year away from being competitive.Atholton coach Dave Vitagliano didn't believe that then and he sure didn't believe it yesterday when unranked Glenelg, behind a three-hit performance from sophomore pitcher Marni Brown, rolled over the No. 4-ranked Raiders, 9-1."When I read that in the paper, I thought, 'Yeah, right. He's not going to be competitive,'" said Vitagliano. "They did a great job. Clearly, he doesn't have the big hitters he had last year, but for us, the big hitters didn't hit the ball.

Over the past three years, the Orioles have had losses against the Seattle Mariners that left them feeling a little undermanned. Last night was different. The Orioles made chances for themselves and came away feeling they had underachieved. Seattle stormed out to a four-run lead, and the Orioles came back to tie the score, turning the game into a tale of two late-inning scoring opportunities. The Orioles missed their chance; the Mariners didn't. Jeff Cirillo drove home the go-ahead run off Orioles closer Jorge Julio in the ninth inning, and Seattle claimed a 5-4 victory before 30,287 at Camden Yards.

The Baltimore Orioles are holding a series of giveaway promotions to celebrate their final days and nights at Memorial Stadium, but they were shamed by the generosity of the Texas Rangers last night.The road-weary Rangers made two errors and mishandled two bunts in the bottom of the 12th inning to treat the Orioles to a 4-3 victory in the first game of a rain-makeup doubleheader, then made a couple of costly errors in the nightcap to drop an 8-7 decision.The sweep was the second for the Orioles in two 1991 doubleheaders.

Highlights and lowlights from the Orioles' 13-8 loss to the Texas Rangers in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. DOWN - Al Reyes: Needs to get his act together. And quickly. UP - Delino DeShields: Put him in the outfield and he hits like an outfielder. UP - Jose Mercedes: Can't touch him. DOWN - B. J. Ryan: Another ninth-inning implosion. UP - Mike Bordick -- Two hits from the two hole, including his second homer. UP - Jerry Hairston: Forget the error. He's having a tremendous spring. The bats Eight runs and 11 hits should be enough.

Braves: Atlanta has scored just 18 runs in its 11 losses this season, as opposed to 84 runs in its 12 wins. . . . Fred McGriff, who struck out in the second for the Braves, has whiffed 22 times in 89 at-bats this season. . . . The Braves are 0-4 on Thursdays this season.Cardinals: Bernard Gilkey has 14 RBIs in his last 14 games and is 8-for-19 against the Cardinals, his former team, with three home runs and 11 RBIs.Dodgers: The team that owned the most dominant left-hander in baseball 30 years ago and has been managed for the last 20 years by a former lefty pitcher hasn't had a left-hander start for them in more than three years.

NEW YORK -- The Yankees are hot and the Orioles are not, which is all you really need to know about the game here yesterday.Earlier in the week it was starting pitching that betrayed thOrioles, but in the past two days the offense has been on a leave of absence, producing a total of three runs.TC A two-run homer by Mike Devereaux provided a 2-0 lead in thfifth inning yesterday, but that was the extent of the Orioles' production. The Yankees got a two-run single from Don Mattingly in the fifth and run-scoring hits from Pat Kelly and Mike Gallego in the sixth for a 4-2 win that kept them in a first-place tie with the Toronto Blue Jays.

This hasn't been Scott Erickson's month. After posting solid numbers during April, Erickson went six starts without a win during May, though he came close last night after a rocky beginning. Erickson surrendered four runs in the first two innings, then kept the Seattle Mariners scoreless through the eighth, long enough for the Orioles to come back to tie the score and nearly take the lead. Jeff Cirillo put Seattle back ahead with a run-scoring double off Orioles closer Jorge Julio in the ninth inning, and the Mariners hung on to defeat the Orioles for the 18th time in their past 20 games, this one 5-4 before 30,287 at Camden Yards.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- On a day when Barry Bonds hit another spring training home run and laid down his first sacrifice bunt in seven years, a high-ranking official for the San Francisco Giants said he doesn't expect the celebration of the slugger's 715th career home run to be muted in any regard. Nor does Giants chief operating officer Laurence Baer believe that Major League Baseball's celebration of Bonds passing the legendary Babe Ruth - if and when that comes - to be that much different from that of the team Bonds has played for the past 13 seasons.

ST. LOUIS -- Some call it small ball, the way St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa signaled Larry Walker to lay down a sacrifice bunt in the first inning of Game 4 of the World Series last night. Then there are those who would call it desperation. The Boston Red Sox had a way of doing that to teams this October, sweeping Anaheim, going down 3-0 to the Yankees and then winning four straight. Now this: a sweep of the Cardinals, the team with the best record in the game this season.

TORONTO -- When he started his professional career, it's doubtful if Dave Winfield thought it would take so long to get where he is today.He had his choice of three sports. He was drafted five times by teams in four different leagues before settling on baseball as his chosen profession. He was drafted as a pitcher out of high school by the Orioles, but opted for the University of Minnesota.He was drafted by the NFL Vikings as a tight end, the Atlanta Hawks and Utah Jazz as a combination power/finesse forward (his description)