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Wilmington Blue Rocks

Wilmington Blue Rocks Game Notes

April 6, 2014 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


FIRST LOSS OF THE SEASON: Squandered opportunities coupled with the presence of Winston-Salem slugger Courtney Hawkins led to the first loss of the season for the Wilmington Blue Rocks on Saturday. The Blue Crew left nine men on base, including seven in scoring position during a 3-2 setback at the hands of the Dash at BB&T Ballpark. Hawkins drove in all three of Winston-Salem's runs as the Rocks fell to 2-1 on the young season.

ROCKS RALLIED BUT FAILED TO ANSWER WHEN OPPORTUNITY KNOCKED: Kenny Diekroeger opened the seventh inning with a free pass. He went to second on Mark Donato's groundout back to the mound and then moved to third on an error by shortstop Tim Anderson. That brought up Jack Lopez with runners at the corners and only one away. The infielder fell behind reliever Bryan Blough, 0-2, but was able to bloop a pitch into shallow center for a game-tying RBI single. Wilmington failed to get anything else in the inning though, as Bubba Starling popped out and Hunter Dozier looked at a called third strike. It was a recurring theme for the Blue Crew, who stranded a man at second base in the second inning, at third base in the fourth and fifth frames, at first and third in the sixth, at first and second in the seventh, at second in the eighth and at third in the ninth.

CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR: Winston-Salem also left four runners in scoring position, but the Dash were able to cash in when it counted in the game's penultimate inning. Anderson opened the frame with a triple to right against Rocks reliever Kyle Bartsch (0-1) and then came plateward on Hawkins' sacrifice fly to right. Earlier Hawkins' two-run homer in the fourth handed the Blue Crew their first deficit of the season. Wilmington tried to respond in the final frame. Donato opened the inning with a single and then stole second, but Terrence Gordon failed to lay down a sacrifice bunt and struck out. Lopez then grounded out to short and Starling fanned to leave the tying-run 90-feet away.

STARTING STRONG: The Blue Rocks have gotten excellent starting pitching over the first three games of 2014. Miguel Almonte, Jonathan Dziedzic and Christian Binford have combined to allow just four runs (two earned) on 11 hits in 15.2 frames of work. Binford allowed just a pair of unearned runs on Saturday, striking out six and walking none in five frames. In 180 innings pitched during Binford's three-year professional career, the 21-year-old right-hander has walked just 29 batters total. Still, Binford became the first member of the Blue Crew staff to start a game, but not get the win in 2014.

WINSTON WOES FOR WILMINGTON: Wilmington has had its share of trouble with Winston-Salem over the years. The Rocks have lost 21 of their last 33 contests against the Dash. Wilmington sported a 5-15 mark in both 2012 and 2013 versus Winston-Salem. A season ago the Blue Crew dropped five of its six series against its rivals from the Tar Heel state, posting a 3.92 ERA and a scant .224 batting average versus the Dash. Conversely, Wilmington allowed Winston-Salem to hit a robust .287 and the Dash pitchers posted an impressive 2.43 earned run average in the 20 match- ups. Things were even worse on the road where the Rocks were 2-8 at BB&T Ballpark, averaging just 2.7 runs per game in those contests. Still, a victory on Sunday will give Wilmington its first series-triumph in Winston-Salem since June, 2011.

THEY SAID IT DARRYL KENNEDY: "We put ourselves in positions where we didn't even really need a hit to get the runs in and, honestly, that's more frustrating than if we had needed a hit. If we get our situations taken care of --moving runners, sac flys and such-- we win that ball game. Some of that's us being young, and some of the credit has to go to Winston-Salem's pitchers, who held us in check and made their pitches in big spots...[Courtney Hawkins] is swinging the bat really well right now. We've left a couple of pitches elevated to him and he hasn't missed them. He's put a charge into them. You have to give them credit because he's swinging the bat really very well so far...As a whole all of our pitchers have pitched really well--starters and the bullpen. Pitching in this ballpark and only giving up a few runs each night is pretty impressive. I'm really happy with the way the guys have been throwing the ball."

THEY SAID IT HUNTER DOZIER: "It was a tough one tonight. I know I had a couple opportunities to produce some runs and couldn't come through. It was just one of those nights where it seemed like nothing fell for us. We were trying not to think about some early opportunities we missed, but it's there. It's hard not to press at the end in that spot, because that's just the game of baseball. You have to learn from it and move forward....It's huge to start the year off well. We played really well the first two nights and were in the game until the last inning tonight. We've got that first loss out of the way and now we just have to find a way to come out and win the series on Sunday."

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