By MICHAEL RADANO
Courier-Post Staff
CAMDEN

Finally, the excitement has come back to Campbell's Field.

And that excitement was a product of a near-record crowd and the hitting prowess of Guillermo Garcia.

"It's good to finally put a good game together in front of a good crowd," manager Wayne Krenchicki said. "We've had some nice crowds and then played horrible."

The Sharks beat Somerset 14-5 in front of 7,089 at Campbell's Field. Garcia recorded a Sharks high with seven RBIs in one game on two home runs in front of the second largest crowd in Field history, behind the 7,192 who showed up opening night. The night was more a demonstration of how far the organization has come than just the team's 21st win of the half.

Friday's game ran smoothly in every aspect on the field and off, as opposed to the deer-in-the-headlights look the Sharks management featured in May.

The Sharks (21-30 half, 45-69 overall) got off to a slow start before Dan Held hit a bloop single to center with two out in the second inning. Jose Morales followed with a single and then Dwight Maness hit his third home run in two days to give Camden a 3-0 lead.

The lead was a rarity for the Sharks this year against their South Division rival. After Friday night the Sharks are 4-12 against Somerset, which clinched its fifth straight half against Atlantic City Thursday night.

But the Sharks weren't through.

John Dorman, Brad Strauss, a Haddon Township High School graduate, and Jesus Azauje all walked to load the bases. Patriots starter Rick Steed appeared to be out of the inning but third baseman Billy Hall bobbled a ground ball off the bat of Gil Martinez. The error cost Somerset more than just one run as Garcia hit his 16th home run of the year to give the Sharks an 8-0 lead.

"It was a changeup," said Garcia, who will come to terms with Cincinnati's Triple-A team, the Louisville Riverbats, today and will play with Louisville for the remainder of the International League playoffs. "It's fun to play in front of a crowd like this. It's fun to have a game like this. Now you go home, get some sleep and get ready to come back tomorrow."

The grand slam did two things for those keen on Sharks statistics. One, it tied Garcia with Maness for the team lead in home runs. Second, it set a home mark for runs in an inning. The previous high was seven, which occured twice. The Sharks scored nine at Bridgeport on July 3.

On the down side, it was only the seventh time all year the Sharks scored more than four runs in a single inning. In fact, it was only the 19th time all season the Sharks scored eight or more runs in a game.

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