Beamon on target

Friday, April 11, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Fortunately for the Las Vegas Stars, Trey Beamon has an amazing knack for handling stressful situations.

Beamon has proven to be the Stars' most consistent player since he was traded to the San Diego Padres' organization at the end of spring training. The 24-year-old outfielder collected two more hits and made a spectacular diving catch to save a run in the Stars' 8-6 victory over Phoenix Thursday night at Cashman Field.

Beamon, a former second-round draft choice of the Pittsburgh Pirates, admitted he was stunned when the Pirates traded him along with catcher Angelo Encarnacion but says he welcomed the move.

"It was totally out of the blue," Beamon said of the trade. "I knew I had a bad spring, but I did not think that that was going to be anywhere in the plans of my future. It was a shock.

"It was a good opportunity for me. I probably would have been in the big leagues quicker with (the Pirates) but in the big picture, I'm in a championship organization. Just looking at that, that makes my attitude a whole lot better."

In his first week with the Stars, Beamon is leading the team in hitting and has compiled a six-game hitting streak.

"We knew he was a pretty good player coming in," Stars manager Jerry Royster said. "It's not a surprise that he's playing well. I'm just glad to see him being as consistent as I have known him to be.

"He's getting a bunch of hits but that's not the only thing he's doing. He's playing defense very well, he's running the bases well, he's getting signs well -- he's done a lot of things well."

Although his two hits led to a pair of runs, it was Beamon's defense that stood out Thursday. With the Stars holding a precarious 4-3 lead in the eighth inning and a Phoenix runner at second base, Beamon made a diving catch of a fly ball to shallow right field that prevented the potential tying run from scoring.

"I like to make those types of plays to keep my team in the game," Beamon said. "I realized that that (hitter) was going to be the winning run so it was pretty much do-or-die, so I did it."

Perhaps sparked by Beamon's play in the top of the eighth, the Stars came back and scored four runs in the bottom half of the inning to take an 8-3 lead. Those runs would prove critical as the Firebirds scored three runs in the ninth on a three-run home run by Jacob Cruz.

The Stars jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning on a leadoff double by Homer Bush and RBI singles by Beamon and Rene Gonzales. Phoenix tied it at 2-2 in the top of the third on Jeff Ball's two-run double off starter Heath Murray (1-0), but Las Vegas took the lead for good on outfielder Derek Lee's run-scoring infield single.

Las Vegas added an insurance run in the fifth on three straight singles by first baseman Derrek Lee, outfielder Lee and Gonzales.

For the second time in as many nights, the Stars' bullpen made the game closer than it had to be. After pitching two scoreless innings in relief of Murray, Brian Drahman gave up a run in the eighth on doubles by Ball and Doug Mirabelli. Left-hander Terry Burrows took over for Drahman with one out and got the next two hitters to fly out with the tying run on second base.

After the Stars rallied for four runs in the bottom of the eighth, Todd Schmitt was called on to close the game for the Stars. The right-hander walked the leadoff hitter, Tim Florez, then got Dante Powell to ground into a fielder's choice. Schmitt then hit Dax Jones with a pitch and gave up a three-run home run to Cruz before striking out Ball and David McCarty to end the game.

As was the case Wednesday night, Royster said he was unconcerned over the late-inning dramatics from his bullpen.

"That's going to happen sometimes," Royster said. "We don't expect guys to just go out there and get everybody out. We won today's game, even though (Schmitt) gave up three runs in the ninth. The emphasis isn't on if we win or lose, it's getting the guys in those situations that they have a chance to succeed at and situations they're going to be in at the next level.

"It's sure nice to have the luxury of having (Schmitt) and (Mark) Kroon and Joey Long, along with Drahman, to close out games. We have a lot of guys down there and the versatility is incredible."