CarL1 Wilmington Blue Rocks

Blue Rocks Game Notes

Published on May 5, 2012 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


PUTTIN' ON THE PFITZ: Through the years, the Potomac Nationals' Pfitzner Stadium has been a house of horrors for the Wilmington Blue Rocks franchise. From Boomer Whiting to recent big league call-up Tyler Moore, a sea of P-Nats have dealt an ocean of misery to a bountiful number of Blue Crewers. Now, add Ricky Hague to the list. In the bottom of the ninth with two outs and a full count, Hague's career-best fourth hit of the night brought Randolph Oduber home from second base and sent Potomac to a 5-4 walk-off win over the Blue Rocks in Friday night's series opener.

ALL GOOD THINGS: Whit Merrifield went 0-for-5 with a strikeout as his 10-game hitting streak came to an end. Since he closed out a homecoming series at Winston-Salem with an 0-for-5 showing on Apr. 21 that lowered his batting average to .196, he hit .400 (16-for-40) during his string of success. His run included five extra-base hits, five RBIs and 11 runs scored.

MAC ATTACK: In his second game batting in the bottom third of the order, the Rocks' former two-hole hitter, Alex McClure, went 1-for-4 to extend his season-best hitting streak to four games. It is now the team's top active hit streak.

GIDDY UP: The Blue Rocks hit into a season-worst four groundball double plays, three of which ended innings. All four came with starter Matt Swynenberg on the hill. Known for his sinking two-seamer, Swynenberg notched 11 outs on the ground against three in the air.

HIT PARADE: The Rocks had been 5-0 when amassing a double-digit hit total before falling on Friday despite a season-high-tying dozen knocks. Eleven of those hits were singles.

BOTTOMS UP: Four of the bottom five men in the Blue Crew's order enjoyed multi-hit nights. The quintet went a collective 9-for-19 (.474) with three RBIs and two runs scored.

GETTING THE NOD: Wilmington southpaw Ryan Dennick's 93rd career appearance was also just his second career start. The prior nod came in his rookie campaign of 2009 while with Rookie Burlington of the Appalachian League. On August 4 of that year, the Tennessee Tech transfer allowed one run over four frames while striking out five. He took a no-decision as the B-Royals beat the Pulaski Mariners, 6-5.

HEATING UP: Geulin Beltre entered Monday night with just nine hits on the season and the CL's second-worst batting average at .134. With two hits and a walk in Friday's loss, Beltre has gone 11-for-19 (.579) over his last five games with two doubles, four RBIs, two walks and a run scored. In less than a week, he has lifted his season-long batting average by nearly 100 points to .233.

PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE: An intense but brief rain storm cancelled batting practice for the Blue Rocks just before it was set to begin...The Rocks' third straight loss is also the P-Nats' third consecutive win...The Blue Rocks are a season-worst five games under .500... With Oduber's solo homer in the third, the Blue Crew has been outhomered 19-9 on the season.

SINGLE-SCORE STRUGGLES: The Blue Crew's league-high 11th one-run game of the year dropped it to a league-worst 4-7 (.364) in such affairs. That means 41% of the Blue Rocks' 27 games have come down to just one run.

Check out the Wilmington Blue Rocks Statistics

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Carolina League Stories from May 5, 2012


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