katrina.waugh@roanoke.com 981-3127
   
   There were rockets with red glare and bombs bursting in air, but by the end of the night the Potomac Cannons wouldn't stop scoring.
   The Salem Avalanche opened its 2004 season Friday night at Salem Memorial Baseball Stadium with flags and fireworks and a 10-2 loss.
   "There were some first-night jitters, but I'm encouraged," said Avalanche manager Russ Nixon. "It was a nice ballgame until the seventh, by then we could've won the game. We just had a tough time getting the last out."
   Salem scored two runs in the bottom of the fifth to tie the score, then Potomac first baseman Tony Blanco hit a solo home run in the sixth and the Cannons scored two more in the seventh before a five-run outburst in the ninth inning.
   Cannons' shortstop Hector Tiburcio went 3-for-5 with a double and three RBI.
   Left fielder Brad Correll and right fielder Junior Ruiz each had a double and two RBI for Potomac, but most of the Cannons' damage came after Salem starter Chris Sampson retired.
   Sampson struck out 10 batters in his five innings of work.
   "I did the best I could to get ahead of hitters," Sampson said. "I thought I could have done a lot better job. My breaking ball, really all three of my pitches were working pretty well, I just sometimes had a little trouble locating my fastball."
   You could've fooled Correll. In fact, Sampson did, striking him out in the first inning and getting a grounder in the third.
   "He was crafty," Correll said. "He had a nice breaking ball and with this being the first game, we were a little jumpy and a little aggressive the first couple of innings. After that we settled down."
   The Cannons scored twice, one of them earned, on two hits, a hit batter and an error in the first inning. With one out in the fifth, Salem second baseman Jon Helquist reached on an error by pitcher Ricardo Aramboles, a righty, and went to second on a single by Gavin Wright. Left-hander Juan Frias relieved Aramboles and struck out Luke Scott. Then DH Mark Saccomanno and left fielder Adam Seuss hit back-to-back RBI-singles to tie the score at 2-2.
   With Salem reliever Aaron Heitzman on the mound, Blanco rocketed an 0-1 pitch over the fence left of the scoreboard in right-center field. The Cannons scored two more off Heitzman on a single and two doubles with two outs in the seventh.
   Billy Westhoff was on the mound in the ninth when the Cannons plated five more runs on two singles, a double, two walks and a hit batter.
   "We definitely want to win," Nixon said. "But we want to see as many players as we can early. We want to know what we've got. We want to give everybody a shot."
   Sampson pointed out that even with the opening-night crowd of 6,319 and the fireworks and festivities, Friday was simply game 1 of an 142-game schedule.
   "Everybody was excited, and I think nerves had a little part in it," Sampson said. "It was good to get the first one under our belts so we can get the kinks out."