World Champions Fall at Home to Vampires April 29, 2000
Deadwood, (AP)- The new-look Deadwood Outlaws, featuring star outfielder Shannon Stewart, lost a slugfest today to the visiting new-look New Orleans Vampires who also featured a solid new CF in Doug Glanville. New Orleans moved within 1 game of climbing out of last place with a 9-7 road win over the defending, yet recently dismantled, World Champions. Both teams' pitching struggling while their bats came alive. New Orleans literally stole victory away from Deadwood as the Vampires stole 5 bases off of Outlaws catcher Charles Johnson. Shortstop Orland Cabrera has 3 of the stolen bases for New Orleans himself. Meanwhile, Mo Vaughn continued to rise out of his slump of late with a towering homerun, 2 sacrifice flies and 4 total RBI on the day. Kurt Abbott and Socks Byrne also homered for the Vampires. But it was the sudden re-emergence of second baseman Adam Riggs that sparked the New Orleans offense today. Riggs went 3 for 4 batting in the 9th spot as a second leadoff man and scored 3 runs while stealing one base and knocking in a double. Another pleasant surprise was the stellar performance of ancient reliever Doug Drabek. Drabek (1-0) pitched 2 strong innings of relief, allowing 1 earned run on 2 hits in relief of struggling Kevin Millwood. New Orleans continues the road series with Deadwood tomorrow when LHP Denny Neagle (0-1, 2.70) and RHP Jaime Navarro (0-2, 4.22) take the mound for the Vampires in Games 2 and 3.
