After 90 games, the baseball fans at Fieldcrest Cannon Stadium have come to expect flawless baseball from their South Atlantic League darlings. Monday night, 1,065 fans saw what happens when a team is tired and hot.

Greensboro’s Bats salvaged the final contest of a four-game series with an 8-1 victory. They seemed a bit more peppy than the Boll Weevils, who had come from behind to beat the Bats in all three of the previous games. But after falling behind Monday, there would be no Weevil comeback.

There were nine stranded runners, five in the seventh and eighth innings. There were muffed forced attempts and three errors.

On this night, the Weevils just didn’t have it.

“Idon’t mind getting beat,” said a disappointed Piedmont manager Greg Legg, “but we didn’t play well. Greensboro outplayed us.”

Starting pitcher Brett Myers was victimized by the errors and a timely Bats hit here and there, thus failing for the third time to become the South Atlantic League’s first 10-game winner.

Only two Bats hit Myers consistently. Mike Vento and Pedro Santana combined for seven of Greensboro’s 10 hits and seven of the team’s eight RBI’s.

But the key stat as far as Legg was concerned was the lackadasical defense. Only three of the eight runs were earned.

How bad did it get? In the ninth, Greensboro scored four runs, all unearned.

“The last few games, we’ve been catching the ball really well,” said Legg. “Defense has been carrying us and tonight, it wasn’t there.”

Noticing the numbers on the scoreboard, he added, “There’s three errors up there and it should’ve been six.”

Myers (9-4) got off to a slow start, giving up three hits and a run in the first. In the third, a Vento triple and an error led to two more and a 3-0 deficit.

But Piedmont likes to play from behind. Jorge Padilla slammed his seventh homer of the season in the fifth and while doing his best Sammy Sosa trot around the bases, the Piedmont fans eased back in their seats and waited for the rally that never came.

Vento’s RBIdouble made it 4-1 in the seventh as the game began slipping away.

The Boll Weevils had its chances, however.

In the bottom of the seventh, Greensboro manager Stan Hough used three pitchers to get out of a bases-loaded jam. Matt Weber, who walked in the winning run two nights earlier, induced Ambiorix Reyes to ground meekly back to the mound to end that threat.

In the eighth, Marlon Byrd and Padilla singled but were left stranded when Aaron Merhoff grounded out.

Mark Outlaw came in to pitch the ninth but was hurt by two more errors. Before the inning was over, Greensboro had locked up a win for only the fifth time in its last 27 games.

“We didn’t make the routine plays tonight,” Legg said. “It should’ve been a 3-1 game and if we get a key hit, we win. But if you don’t make the plays and they hit, then, it becomes an 8-1 score.”

The Weevils (59-31) have today off and will travel to Charleston (W.Va.) begininng Wednesday.

“Hopefully, a day off will help clear some minds and give the kids some rest,” Legg said. “I know they’re beat up and tired. A lot of these kids have never played this many games. But it’s good to play when you’re tired and don’t feel fresh.”

Legg gave orders to his players: relax and watch the all-star game.

“That’s what I’ll be doing,” he said.

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