Eventually, even Salem Avalanche shortstop Tommy Manzella had to admit that it wasn't exactly routine.

Kinston's Brian Finegan rapped a sharp grounder just to the left of second base in the fourth inning on Sunday and Manzella made a sliding stop, rolled over and threw a rocket to first from his butt to steal a hit from Finegan.

Manzella robbed Finegan again the next inning, and later snared a line drive by Jose Constanza making an otherwise long afternoon at least entertaining for the Avalanche, which suffered a 5-3 Carolina League loss at the hands of the Kinston Indians at Salem Memorial Baseball Stadium.

"He's exciting to watch," said Avalanche manager Jim Pankovits, who stayed in the game long enough to see Manzella's first two great plays before getting ejected for arguing a pickoff call with base umpire Gerard Ascani in the bottom of the fifth inning.

While Manzella admitted that he could not call the dive-roll-and-fire-from-the seat-of-his pants move "routine," he said being able to complete the play came out of routine.

It was the thousands of ground balls he's seen over his career that let him envision making the play and then executing it. He even said he'd "fooled around with" different ways to make the play over the years before settling on the "slide-stop."

With no one on base, Manzella said, there's not point in even trying to stop the ball if you're not going to make the throw to first as well -- it would end up being a single anyway.

"As soon as I see the ball I start thinking about making the throw to first," Manzella said. "The first target is to catch the ball and then the target is to make the throw. You have to keep your mind focused and make the transition quick. You can't stop and think, 'oh that was a good catch.' You have to square your shoulders and make the throw. Making the catch does nothing."

Manzella, who allowed himself only a sliver of a smile while talking about his defensive day, said he hoped that his hard work on defense would help his pitchers feel confident.

"That's all I really think about, just that and contributing another out," Manzella said. "You can't think about it too much, because the next ball could be a routine ball right at you and you could boot it. You have to make all the routine plays and then try to make those other ones."

"He plays hard. He's not afraid of getting dirty, he gives his body up," Pankovits said. "He does whatever it takes."

"Unfortunately," Manzella said. "It wasn't enough."

Salem starter Chris Salamida (0-3) again struggled with his control and Kinston starter David Huff had no such trouble.

Huff pitched his longest outing in two seasons, blanking Salem through six innings and then giving up a pair of runs in the seventh.

Huff was Cleveland's first pick in last year's draft after pitching a full season for UCLA and saw limited action in the short-season New York-Penn League.

This year, he was held to four innings in his first two outings then stretched to five and then six innings before Sunday.

Huff, only the third left-handed starter Salem has faced so far this season, allowed only three hits in the first six innings Sunday.

"He was mixing his speeds and he was moving it around the plate," Manzella said. "After the first time [through the order], he was mixing up his first pitches.

"We hadn't really seen that before."

Down 5-0, the Avalanche picked up a pair of runs off of Huff in the seventh on doubles by Manzella, J.R. Towles and Eli Iorg and a sacrifice fly by Ole Sheldon. Salem took advantage of an error by third baseman Chris De la Cruz to add a third run in the ninth.

"We started to make adjustments toward the end of the game," Manzella said. "It was encouraging."

KINSTON SALEM

ab r h bi ab r h bi

Costanza cf 4 1 1 0 Flores dh 4 0 1 0

Drennen lf 5 0 2 1 Manzella ss 3 1 1 0

Ramirez c 3 1 2 1 Towles c 4 1 1 0

S. Head 1b 4 0 0 0 Sheldon 1b 3 0 0 1

Rodriguez ss 3 1 1 0 Iorg rf 4 1 3 1

Gimenez dh 2 1 1 2 Einertson lf 4 0 0 0

Finegan 2b 4 0 0 0 Rosales cf 4 0 1 1

Head rf 4 1 2 0 Hart 3b 4 0 0 0

De la Cruz c-3b 4 0 2 0 King 2b 3 0 1 0

Totals 33 5 11 4 Totals 33 3 8 3

Kinston 100 201 100 -- 5

Salem 000 000 201 -- 3

E -- De La Cruz (2), Einerston (1). LOB -- Kinston 8, Salem 5. 2B -- Iorg (2), J. Head, King, Manzella, Towles. HR -- Gimenez Ramirez. SB -- Constanza (4), Iorg (8).

IP H R ER BB SO

Kinston

Huff W,3-0 7 6 2 2 0 4

Finocchi S,1 2 2 1 0 1 1

Salem

Salamida L,0-3 4 2-3 6 3 2 3 3

McKeller 2 1-3 4 2 2 1 0

Soto 2 1 0 0 1 2

WP-- Finocchi. HBP -- by Salamida (Constanza and S. Head).

Umpires -- Home: Barron. Bases: Ascani.T -- 2:42.

A -- 5,769.

HOW THEY SCORED

Kinston first: Constanza singled. Drennen singled; Constanza to second. Ramirez singled to left, Constanza scored on a throwing error by Einertson. Indians 1, Avalanche 0.

Kinston fourth: Rodriguez walked. Gimenez homered; Rodriguez scored. Indians 3, Avalanche 0.

Kinston sixth: J. Head doubled and went to third on a groundout by de la Cruz. Constanza lined out. Drennen singled; J. Head scored. Indians 4, Avalanche 0.

Kinston seventh: Ramirez homered. Indians 5, Avalanche 0.

Salem seventh: Manzella doubled. Towles doubled; Manzella to third. Sheldon flied out; Manzella scored. Iorg doubled; Towles scored. Indians 5, Avalanche 2.

Salem ninth: One out. Iorg doubled. Einertson reached and went to second on an error by de la Cruz; Iorg to third. Rosales grounded out; Iorg scored. Indians 5, Avalanche 3.