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[Rocks Media] Blewett Strong as Offense Falters

April 30, 2017 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


Blewett Strong as Offense Falters

Rocks Shutout for Third Time in Six Days

Buies Creek, NC - Despite another strong pitching performance by RHP Scott Blewett, the Wilmington Blue Rocks (7-15) were shutout in a 3-0 loss to the Buies Creek Astros (16-7) on Saturday night at Jim Perry Stadium. Blewett was the tough luck loser as he allowed just one run in six innings of work while the offense mustered a pair of hits. With the loss, the Blue Crew's losing streak now extends to a season-long six games and it is the third time in that span the offense has been held scoreless.

For the second game in as many nights, the starting pitching for both team shined through the first six innings of the game. Aside from a Jason Martin RBI single in the bottom of the first inning to put the Astros up 1-0, Blewett turned in another quality start. The tall righty worked six innings, allowed just the lone run on four hits, walked two and struck out four.

However, the Wilmington offense was unable to find any luck against Buies Creek starter RHP Elieser Hernandez who spun five innings of one-hit, shutout baseball to earn the victory. Nicky Lopez and Wander Franco were the lone batters for Wilmington record a hit as the offensive unit struck out 12 times.

The Astros padded their lead in the eighth inning on a Kyle Tucker two-run triple to make it a 3-0 game which gave the contest its final score.

Wilmington looks to avoid a winless six-game road trip with a win in the finale against Buies Creek on Sunday afternoon at Jim Perry Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. with LHP Emilio Ogando (1-0, 6.64 ERA) making the start for the Blue Rocks while the Astros send RHP Justin Ferrell to the hill. Fans can listen to the game as Matt Janus will have the call on 89.7 WGLS-FM.

Pebbles of Knowledge

With the shutout, the Blue Rocks have been part of the second-most shutouts in the Carolina League with three. Wilmington trails just the Winston-Salem Dash who have more. The Rocks have been shutout three times in a six-game span. The Rocks were shutout by the Winston-Salem Dash in the back end of their doubleheader on April 23 by a 1-0 score. Their other scoreless defeat of the week came on Thursday night in Myrtle Beach.

The struggles for Wilmington's offense in the series against Myrtle Beach carried over up north to Buies Creek. Through the first two games of the set, the Rocks have stranded 10 men on base and are 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position. Through their first five games of the six-game trek away from Frawley Stadium, the Rocks left 35 men on base and stranded 20 runners in scoring position with two outs. The Rocks have been outscored 23-10 in that span.

The Rocks starters have lost both games in the series despite turning in quality starts. Between LHP Foster Griffin, who started the opener of the series and Blewett, the two starters have combined to pitch 12 2/3 innings, allow two earned runs, six hits, four walks and nine strikeouts. Foster fell 2-2 with his loss while Blewett is still in search of his first win after dropping to 0-2 on Saturday night.

They Said It: Jamie Quirk

"It was awesome. (Scott) Blewett got himself in trouble right away, down 1-0, no outs and got out of a bases loaded jam. He just attacked, found his breaking ball a little bit, got the ball down and it went on from there. That was a great effort on his part and I was very proud of him. The way it was looking, it wasn't looking very good, but he found a way to get it done and then some."

"That's the job of relievers unfortunately. When you have starters doing their job and going six, seven innings every time out and you only have eight innings when you're on the road because we haven't been winning. It's hard to get guys work. Like Saturday, we had to get (Richard) Lovelady and (Jake) Kalish in and we are trying to get (Jared) Ruxer in there, he's been down six days. They know the deal and we've talked to them, but they have to stay sharp. They throw their flat grounds and throw on the side a little bit. It's part of baseball when you have starters doing what they're doing."

"It's recognition of pitches. (Chase) Vallot is swinging at balls and taking strikes and that's not a good combination right now. We are trying to calm him down and the game speeds up, gets going fast and he wants to do more. You have to crawl before you run and he's learning on the fly. It's all pitch recognition and swinging at strikes and taking balls, however it's going in the opposite direction right now."

D.J. Burt

"We just have to keep playing hard. That's all we can do right now, we are giving it our all out there. Things aren't going our way right now."

"It feels good playing 15 minutes away from home. It's like playing AAU ball with everyone coming out and supporting me. It was a pretty good series coming out here and playing in front of them. I don't feel any pressure with playing in front of a hometown crowd. I just try to have good at-bats and it doesn't really bother me. I just try to go out and have fun."

25 Years of Blue Rocks Baseball

www.bluerocks.com


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