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Wilmington Blue Rocks

Blue Rocks Drop Series Finale, 3-2, in Myrtle Beach

August 21, 2014 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


Myrtle Beach, SC - The Blue Rocks were unable to complete a three-game sweep of Myrtle Beach on Thursday, as the Pelicans took the series finale by a final score of 3-2. With the loss, the Blue Crew fell to 28-28 in the second half and to 61-63 overall. They trail the first-place Potomac Nationals by five games and maintain a one-game lead over the Lynchburg Hillcats for the C.L. North Wild Card spot.

Myrtle Beach scored three times off of Miguel Almonte in the first inning to take a 3-0 lead, one they never relinquished. Lewis Brinson led off the frame with a single and then came around to score on a one-out homer by Preston Beck. With two outs, Christopher Bostick singled to center and then scored on an RBI double into the right-field corner by Chris Grayson.

Frank Schwindel pulled Wilmington to within 3-1 in the second inning with his second home run in as many days. It was his second career homer at the Advanced-A level and his 22nd overall this year.

A one-out RBI walk by Cody Stubbs in the sixth inning cut the Myrtle Beach lead to 3-2. Back-to-back free passes from Zane Evans and Frank Schwindel, as well as an error by third-baseman Nick Vickerson that allowed Jared Schlehuber to reach, set up Stubbs' base on balls. Daniel Rockett then grounded into a double play with the bags packed to end Wilmington's biggest threat of the night.

Luis Parra (10-6, 4.71) picked up the win for Myrtle Beach with five solid frames. He gave up one run on three hits and struck out five. Almonte (6-7, 4.80) took the loss for Wilmington and yielded three runs on four hits in three frames of work. Jose Leclerc earned his 13th save of the year for the Pelicans with a perfect ninth.

The Rocks return to action on Friday night at Salem Memorial Ballpark as they open up a four-game series against the Salem Red Sox. Wilmington will hand the ball to Brooks Pounders (0-0, 0.00), who is scheduled to make his first Blue Rocks start of the year. Salem will counter with fellow righty Heri Quevedo (1-0, 0.00). First pitch is slated for 7:05 p.m. and fans can listen to the broadcast on 89.7 WGLS-FM.

PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:

Frank Schwindel continued to impress with his bat in Thursday night's 3-2 loss to Myrtle Beach. The right-handed hitting slugger batted fifth and finished the evening 1-for-3 with a home run and a walk. His solo home run in the second inning got the Blue Rocks on the board immediately after Miguel Almonte surrendered three runs in the first. Schwindel now has at least one hit in each of his first three games with the Blue Rocks. He went 2-for-3 with a home run and a walk on Wednesday and went 2-for-4 on Tuesday in his Blue Crew debut. Schwindel is now a combined 5-for-10 with two homers and two walks in his first three games with Wilmington. Prior to Schwindel, only four Blue Rocks had recorded two hits in their first start with the club this season: Hunter Dozier on April 3, Cody Stubbs on April 4, Tyler Chism on April 6 and Mark Threlkeld on July 4. Schwindel began the campaign with Low-A Lexington, where he had the best offensive season of anyone on the team. In 102 games with the Legends, he batted .286 with 29 doubles, three triples, 20 homers and 20 RBIs. Schwindel is in his second season as a pro. He played in 64 games for Rookie-Level Idaho Falls a year and batted .300 with 14 doubles, a triple, six homers and 25 RBIs.

Miguel Almonte made his second start on Thursday since missing two weeks with minor discomfort in his elbow. Almonte yielded three runs on four hits in three innings of work. He struck out one and did not walk a batter. In his last start, on August 15 against the Winston-Salem Dash, he worked two scoreless frames, walked one and struck out two. Prior to that outing, the hard-throwing righty had not pitched since July 31 in Lynchburg, when he was lifted in the third inning with minor elbow discomfort. Overall this season, Almonte is 6-7 with a 4.80 ERA in 21 appearances (20 starts). He has 89 punchouts and 30 walks in 101.1 innings pitched. The righty has also yielded 101 hits and 58 runs (54 earned) in 2014. Opposing batters are hitting .265 against Almonte. Lefties are batting .303 against him while righties are hitting just .239.

After making two spot starts, Johnny Walter returned to the bullpen on Thursday night and delivered in a big way for the Blue Rocks. The righty tossed four shutout innings in relief of Miguel Almonte to keep the game close. Walter gave up three hits, struck out one and did not walk a batter. Once Walter departed, Yender Caramo hurled a perfect frame to keep the Blue Rocks in the game entering the final frame of play. Walter and Caramo's dominance was especially key on a night that Kyle Bartsch, Daniel Stumpf and Zeb Sneed were unavailable. The Blue Crew 'pen has been one of the team's strengths throughout the season. They are a combined 30-20 with a collective 2.78 ERA. Blue Rocks' relievers have punched out 381 and issued 121 bases on balls in 2014.

Wilmington's Pelican problems returned in Thursday night's 3-2 loss in Myrtle Beach. The defeat, which was the final meeting in 2014 between the two clubs in 2014, dropped the Rocks to 5-14 against Myrtle Beach this season. It also prevented the Blue Rocks from sweeping the Pelicans for the first time this year. Myrtle Beach swept the Blue Crew three times this year. Wilmington finished the season 2-7 at Frawley Stadium against the Pelicans and 3-7 at TicketReturn.com Field. The Blue Rocks struggled mightily against Myrtle Beach all season long. They hit just .202 with 56 runs scored and nine home runs in 19 games against the Pelicans. Conversely, Myrtle Beach batted .255 with 89 runs scored and 13 home runs against Blue Rocks pitching. The Pelicans' 13 long balls against Wilmington are the most allowed to any team by the Blue Rocks. No other club has hit more than 10 dingers off of the Rocks' pitching staff. Pelican pitchers finished the campaign with a 2.28 ERA in 165.2 innings during the head-to-head series. Blue Crew hurlers, on the other hand, finished with a 4.56 ERA in 160 innings against the Pelicans.

THEY SAID IT:

Manager Darryl Kennedy:

"[Miguel Almonte] got hit hard in the first inning. Centered fastballs that were belt-high and they made him pay for it. You look at a lot of our games, it's exactly that. They get him early and then cruise from there. That's exactly what happened tonight. He pitched two good innings after that...I thought [Johnny] Walter did a great job for us. Caramo came in and kind of got a bounceback there after having a couple of bad outings."

"[Johnny Walter] did a good job and we needed that. If he ran into trouble there early in the game, we would have been able to get through tonight but it would have put us in a bad situation the next couple of nights. He really stepped up for us and gave us a chance to win."

"I thought we did a good job of laying off pitches, putting us in a position to have a big inning. We caught a break there with the throw to third that got by the third baseman for an error to load the bases. [Cody] Stubbs did a great job working the count and hanging in there and taking some tough pitches off the lefty. He draws us to 3-2 [with a walk], they bring in the sidearmer and we just got a little too aggressive. [Daniel Rockett] swung at a pitch that was probably off the plate that turned into a double play. That was the inning. You could tell, by then, that this game wasn't going to be a blowout and that it wasn't going to be a high-scoring game...That was our biggest chance of the night right there. If we get a bloop hit or even a sacrifice fly, we tie the ballgame, who knows what happens after that."

"Going into this series and the struggles that we've had with this team, both here and at our place, I was hoping to win one game. That's what I set my mind at, to win one game. We got two games in the first two nights and we went in tonight and still had a chance to win this one. I'm extremely proud of the way we played these guys. The best thing was, even though they scored, we didn't fold. They jumped on us with three runs tonight and we came right back. I'm extremely pleased with how this series went. Then, we've got to go to Salem and win another series."

"We're ready. No doubt about it. It's there for us. We caught a break the last four or five games by Lynchburg hitting a little slump. It got us right back in it. Now we're in the lead. It's up to us now. We're in the driver's seat. We've just got to take care of ourselves and we're in."

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