Florida Today from Cocoa, Florida • Page 25

3C FLORIDA TODAY, Thursday, May 25, 1995 Ft I Jf BRIEFS It 1 l-w" 4 i iiiki li ii ii Punchless Manatees fall 3-1 to Rangers By Bill King FLORIDA TODAY In the world of these Brevard County Manatees, a two-run homer is a mountain with a face steeper than Everest's. So when Mike Bell dumped a high-and-tight fastball over the left field fence in the fourth inning Wednesday night, putting the Charlotte Rangers in front of the Manatees 3-0, the scoreboard might as well have read 3o-o. i "The way we're hitting right now, yeah, being down three runs usually means we're in big trouble," Manatees leftfielder Dan Robinson said. "We're just not generating runs. We get our six or eight or nine hits, but they're all in different innings.

And they're all singles. "It's tough to score runs like that." The same old story played itself out at Space Coast Stadium on Wednesday night. This time the Manatees fell 3-1. They had seven hits, but spread them across seven innings. Six of the hits were singles.

The result: Yet another loss for a club that has dropped six in a row, nine of its last 10 and 12 of 15. Brevard was alone atop the Florida State League's East Division eight days ago. This morning, they're in fourth place, two games below .500 at 22-24. "You don't want to go up there telling yourself you have to get a hit and I think that's a lot of what we're doing," said Manatees designated hitter Brendan Kingman, the club's RBI leader, who went 0 for 4 and stranded three runners. "You want to go up there thinking you're going to get a hit.

Expect it to happen. Instead, I go up there wanting it so bad, I tense up, and the first pitch I see that's close I try to hit out of the ballpark." Kingman said that both pitches he was retired on with runners on base were pitches he should have driven into the gap. He topped one and dribbled it up the middle and sliced the other into a fly out to right. "Right now, I'm trying to push myself too hard," Kingman said. "I can't try to hit the ball out.

I've got to hit into the gaps and if it happens, great." The Manatees' lone run came when Rangers' starter David Manning, who came into the night with a 6.46 ERA, balked with runners on the corners. As sleepy a performance as this was for the Panthers' Tedders -X" lands pro contract By David Jones FLORIDA TODAY To say Dylan Tedders wanted a shot at playing professional baseball would be putting it mildly. Last week. Tedders spent three days driving froin Melbourne to Anderson, for a tryout with the Anderson Lawmen in the Mid-America League r. a league for unaffiliated players.

'nZ Tedders' car broke down four times. He had, Jo spend two nights in Tennessee while waiting on repairs. Then, when the Florida Tech senior first baseman-pitcher finally reached Indiana, it rained for two days. i "I didn't think I was going to make it for a while," Tedders said. Finally, last Saturday, he tried out and was signed tyy the team's manager, Jay Welker.

Tedders hit .382 this season to lead the Panthers. Re also had a team-high 49 runs batted in and was second on the club with seven homers. Tedders, an NCAA Division II second-team All-South Regional selection as a utility player, finished his career at Tech with a .3615 average to break the school record. David Howard, the school's former leader in caree average, had a .358 mark 1980-81. Tedders gives the Panthers five former currently playing pro baseball.

The others are Jeff Driskell, a catcher for the Detroit Tigers' Class A Florida State League club in Lakeland; left-handed pitcher Jeff Faino, who was traded by Boston to Baltimore this spring and is with the Orioles' Double A club in Hagerstown, knuckleball pitcher Tim Wakefield, who is with the Red Sox's Triple A Pawtucket club; and outfielder Mark Venditti, with the independent Zanesville, Ohio, franchise in the Frontier League. Lytton shoots second 77 in a row MESA, Ariz. After two rounds of 77, Brevard Community College's Chad Lytton stands in 52nd place out of 102 golfers in Wednesday's action at the National Junior College Athletic Association Championships at Alta Mesa Country Club. Midland (Texas) Junior College leads the tearr standings at 588, followed by Scottsdale (Ariz) at 589 Dan Norton of Scottsdale maintained his lead of the: individual race, carding a 69-71 140. Lytton begins third-round action today at 6:30 a.m.

t' Pat Jarrell, FLORIDA TODAY GLEN REEVES runs down a fly ball in the Brevard Wednesday at Space Coast Stadium. The rightfield-Manatees' 3-1 loss to the Charlotte Rangers erwent1for4. got real good tools play at this level," said Manatees manager Fredi Gonzalez. "He'll play every day while Brady's down and, who knows, he may end up sticking around all year." Charlotte 3 Brevard 1 CHARLOTTE Little cf Blair If Diaz2t) K. Browne Vessel dh Bell 3b Macon rf Malonelb Bokemeier ss Totals Reeves rt Hastings 2b Kingman dh Millar lb Robinson If Berg 3b Martinez cf Gonzalez ss Simsc Totals Manatees, there was good news.

Marlins' pitcher Jeremy Hernandez, who last season had surgery to repair a disc in his neck, pitched one inning and reported neither pain nor stiffness. He threw 11 pitches eight of them fastballs, two sliders and one forkball. His velocity was still about three ticks short of the 89 mph he'd like to throw consistently when he returns to the majors, but he's attributing that to rust. "I'm rebuilding my arm strength, the way you typically do in spring training," said Hernandez, who briefly closed for the Marlins last season before following Bryan Harvey onto the disabled list. "My velocity is down, but that's like the dead arm you experience after the first week or so of spring.

As long as I keep working back like this with no pain and no soreness, the arm strength will come." Notebook: The Manatees have lost starting shortstop Brady Babin to the disabled list because of a sore shoulder. Alex Gonzalez, a highly regarded 18-year-old from Venezuela, joined the club from the Marlins' extended spring program and will replace Babin as the everyday shortstop. "You don't want it to happen this way, but this is a good opportunity to see a kid whose Charlotte Brevard County 001 200 000 3 no ooi oooi Berg, Macon. DP Charlotte 2, Brevard 0. LOB Charlotte 7, Brevard 6.

2B Little. Millar. HR Bell (3). RER BB SO 5 2' 5 111 2 0 0 0 Charlotte Manning, (3-2) Reves.SO) Brevard Carl, (1-1) Lewis Hernandez Bowen 2:12. A 1,071.

3 3 3 4 2 2 10 0 13 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 Scores, standings 7C. 1 -V- Jc uWW Jl JL Jl WU jflL. J. JS Devils down Pens; Flyers 1 win away y.S- 'fjs xs 's NHL updates For frequent updates of NHL Playoff games, call Florida Today's NewsNow 511. Dial 511, then enter category 2968 for Eastern Conference games and 2969 for Western Conference games.

Each call is 50 cents for five minutes. Calling details, 2A. FLORIDA TODAY Wires EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. I.inemates Bobby Holik and Randy McKay scored in New Jersey's three-goal second period as the Devils continued their playoff domination by beating the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-1 Wednesday night. New Jersey now leads the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series 2-1, and it could have easily have been 3-0 had the Devils had any luck in Game 1, which they lost on a late brea kaway after a bad line change.

The Devils, who won Game 2 on a late goal by defenseman Scott York Islanders the last time he played at the Garden, was a different goaltender this time as the Flyers took a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinals. The Flyers can finish off the defending champions when the series resumes with Game 4 at the Garden on Friday night. Bruins officially hire Kasper as coach BOSTON Steve Kasper, a head coach in pro hockey for only one year, becomes coach of the Boston Bruins on Thursday. The hiring has been assumed for nearly a week. The Boston job became vacant eight days when Brian Sutter was fired.

Stevens, didn't let the Penguins get started in Game 3. They outshot the Penguins 17-3 in a scoreless first "period. Flyers 5, Rangers 2 NEW YORK Goaltender Ron in his first playoff game at Madison Square Garden since a defeat last year, led the Philadelphia Flyers within one game of the conference finals with a 5-2 victory against the New York Rangers. Hextall, a 6-0 loser with the New nl rj II rHfi UliJ Allied Tires Service has posted special Memorial Day Red, White Blue price tags on thousands of tires at every Allied location! When you see a tag you'll get an extra discount up to $50 off Allied's "On The Rim And Out The Door; Price! iUp 1 li LT" II lSme9Balancing PI II fi ll I 'Lifetime Rotation VJX LJ VM7 If III 'Factory Warranty nn Rmi A taSCi22y if 24 Hour Roadside Baa. i-J; Brugera stops Kafelnikov TENNIS FLORIDA TODAY Wires DUESSELDORF, Germany Af-: ter taking two days off to nurse a tender knee, Sergi Brugera beat a discouraged Yevgeny Kafelnikov in straight sets Wednesday at the World Team Cup.

Bruguera, the two-time defend-ing French Open champion, needed one hour to defeat the world's ninth-ranked player 6-3, 6-2. "I'm completely frustrated with my game," Kafelnikov said. "If I a have to play some Spaniard in the first round at the French Open, then it's goodbye." Bruguera's win was not enough to stop Spain from losing 2-1 at the $1.8 million tournament. The second loss eliminated the three-time winners from Sunday's final. Croatia, despite another win by Goran Ivanisevic, was beaten by the Netherlands 2-1 after losing a deciding doubles match in their Red Group match.

Filippini downs American in Italy BOLOGNA, Italy Unseeded Marcelo Filippini of Uruguay, who upset No. 2 Richard Fromberg in the opening round of the Bologna tennis tournament, defeated Jonathan Stark 7-5, 6-3 Wednesday. 45 LOCATIONS THROUGHOUT FLORIDA! rk mi Two Italian first-round upset winners were less fortunate in the second round. Massimo Calvelli, ranked 296th in the world, who ousted sixth-seeded American Vince Spadea, lost to Spaniard Jordi Burillo 6-2, And 264th-ranked Pietro Pennisi, who eliminated Spaniard Oscar Martinez in the first round, lost 6-0, 6-2 to No. 7 seed, Czech Slava Dosedel.

Appelmans rolls along in Strasbourg Open STRASBOURG, France Unseeded Sabine Appelmans of Belgium advanced to the quarterfinals of the Strasbourg Open Wednesday with a 6-2, 6-4 victory against Mana Endo of Japan. In other second-round matches Yone Kamio of Japan defeated fifth-seeded Lori McNeil of the United States 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 and No. 2 1 Kimiko Date of Japan beat Nicole Bradtke of Australia 64, 6-1. Scores, 7C. I A 70 till fill I i i 1-800-970-TIRE CALL Alignments i For The Best Price To Talk To The Allied Location Nearest You How Through Memorial Day! I i I i i LDEE) ri it SLLiED d.hom sorcmpons HI I TIRES SERVICE MHHH ki fll HHBHI BHB.