For one thing, Quintero, a 21-year-old catcher, was batting .219 with two RBIs.

For another, Quintero was taking the afternoon off from the early-starting, getaway-day contest because he had toiled behind the plate on Wednesday night. Quintero’s understudy, Wally Rosa, received the start in the mask and shinguards.

But manager Razor Shines inserted Quintero in the eighth inning and he was ready to play. He won the game in the ninth, cracking a two-out drive over the head of right fielder Alexis Rios to score Derek Wigginton from second base and give the Intimidators a 2-1 victory.

No one knows if Quintero was a boy scout back in his native Venezuela, but he sure sounds like one. He says he’s always prepared.

“You never know when you’ll be called upon,” said Quintero, through hitting coach/interpreter Ken Dominguez. “I did not start the game, but I was still ready to go.”

Quintero’s late heroics gave the first-place Intimidators (11-3) a four-game sweep of the Alley Cats (4-10), who scored just six runs in the series at Fieldcrest Cannon Stadium.

The only Intimidator starting pitcher who has not been imposing in the early going — Corwin Malone — was on the hill. This time Malone was fine, allowing only Al Morrow’s solo homer in six innings of work.

But, for a change, Intimidator bats were deathly quiet. Kannapolis scored just once prior to the ninth (on a throwing error) and couldn’t come up with a clutch hit. John Lackaff, who bats third and is second in the league in RBIs, struck out twice in key situations. Cleanup man Casey Rogowski, who usually watches Lackaff’s back, also failed a couple of times.

When the Intimidators put the first two men on in the eighth and still couldn’t push a run across, you had the feeling they were destined to finally lose one.

But Joe Valentine, the Intimidators’ third pitcher, kept Charleston off the board in the top of the ninth.

Then in the bottom half, Wigginton worked a one-out walk and stole second. With two outs, Roman Tapia, kept the game going with another walk. That brought Quintero to the plate and he gave a cut fastball from right-hander Derrek Nunley a long ride to the opposite field for the walk-off win.

“Humberto got off to a slow start (this season) and like a lot of young hitters he started to press and tried to do too much,” said Dominguez. “Young hitters fall into thinking they have to be ‘the guy.’ But they don’t. They just have to be one of the guys. Just have to play their role.

“On any good team, it’s never one guy or a couple of guys. It’s a different hero every day. Today it’s me, tomorrow it’s you. Next day, someone else.”

This time it was Quintero. He picked up the big guys with the big numbers and sent his teammates off on that marathon bus ride to Salisbury, Md., with smiles on their faces.

Quintero isn’t conversant in English yet, but he already knows exactly what the word “Maryland” means. He knows that’s where the Delmarva Shorebirds play ball and he also knows it’s quite a haul from Kannapolis.

When Dominguez mentions “Maryland,” Quintero nods and spouts a stream of Spanish.

“Humberto — he agrees that long bus trip will be much better now, shorter for everyone,” translated a smiling Dominguez.

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