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 Wilmington Blue Rocks

Blue Rocks roll past Keys

June 9, 2008 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


Frederick, MD - The Wilmington Blue Rocks picked up a bittersweet win at Frederick's Harry Grove Stadium on Monday night. While the Blue Crew posted a wire-to-wire 9-4 victory, the first-place Potomac Nationals defeated the Winston-Salem Warthogs, 5-3, to clinch the first-half title in the Northern Division. Despite that disappointment, Wilmington saw several heroes champion its cause against the defending Mills Cup winners. Starter Everett Teaford (4-1) went a season-best 6.2 innings and fell one strikeout shy of his career-high mark with eight. Outfielder Jarrod Dyson notched his league-leading seventh outfield assist and logged a career night with four RBIs, including a bases-loaded three-run double. With the win, the Blue Rocks (32-32) brought themselves back to the .500 mark on the season.

Suspect Frederick defense fueled the Blue Rocks in the early stages of Monday night. In fact, Wilmington scored a run in the opening inning without a base hit. With one out, Chris McConnell walked, stole second and scored on right fielder Brandon Tripp's first error of the season, a dropped fly ball off the bat of Joe Dickerson. The Rocks needed just one hit to increase their lead in the second inning. Jeff Bianchi singled to left, Anthony Seratelli walked and starter Jake Arrieta fired a wild pitch to move both men up. Josh Johnson knocked home a score with a right-side groundout that also advanced Seratelli to third, and Jeff Howell drove him in with a sacrifice fly to right field.

The "Best Athlete" in the Kansas City minor leagues according to Baseball America, Derrick Robinson, created a run by himself in the third inning. After reaching on an error, the league's stolen base leader drew multiple throws to first base, one of which resulted in a balk. The speedster then stole third, prompting an errantly tall throw from catcher Matt Wieters that sailed into left field as Robinson crossed the plate for a 4-0 advantage. The stolen base was his 30th of the season.

Frederick rallied in the bottom half of the third with a couple of home runs off Teaford. Light-hitting Bobby Andrews sent the frame's first pitch over the wall in left-center for his first home run of 2008, while Wieters bashed a two-run job to straightaway center later in the frame for a one-run game, 4-3. Teaford would not allow another score.

In fact, the southpaw retired 12 of the last 13 men he faced, including three straight strikeouts before he was lifted in the seventh. During that time, Dyson led a middle-innings offensive to put the Keys away. An infield single to third by the lightning-quick Mississippi native knocked home a fourth-inning tally against Arrieta (5-2). A likely Carolina League All-Star, the Blue Rocks tagged Arrieta with five runs (three earned) on five hits over four innings in his first start since missing a scheduled outing due to a back strain.

Arrieta's replacement, Jeff Moore, began the fifth and allowed a run on a bases-loaded plunking of Howell. Dyson followed, falling down 0-2 in the count before clearing the bases with a double to left-center for a 9-3 lead.

One funny moment on the night had Frederick reliever Scott Mueller enter the game to begin the eighth inning. One problem - Mueller was not on the lineup card. So lefty Chad Thall had to get ready in a hurry, but hurled two scoreless innings, working around a walk and two hits.

Blue Rocks reliever Henry Barrera finished things behind Teaford. He struck out three and allowed one run on a Ryan McCarthy solo homer in the eighth, going the game's last 2.1 innings. With one out in the ninth, Chris Vinyard singled to left-center field and attempted to stretch it into a double, but Dyson gunned him down at second base.

In game two of the three-game set, the Blue Rocks will face rehabbing big leaguer Adam Loewen. The southpaw pitched for Frederick in 2004 and 2005 before cracking the major leagues with the Orioles in 2006. He went 0-1 with a 7.85 ERA in four big league starts this April before elbow soreness placed him on the disabled list on April 25. Coincidentally, the highest-drafted Canadian ever (fourth overall, 2002) faces Wilmington's north-of-the-border native Matt Kniginyzky (2-6, 3.51). First pitch is set for 7:00 p.m.

PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE: Through five games on their seven-game road trip, the Blue Rocks have given up eight home runs. The team has allowed a home run in four straight games for the first time this season.

Continuing on the big-fly path, Frederick had not slugged a single home run against the Blue Rocks in six head-to-head meetings before pushing in each of its four scores with three dingers Monday night. As a result, the Blue Rocks have now allowed home runs to every other team in the Carolina League.

Adam Loewen's scheduled rehab start on Tuesday is scheduled to be rather short. Once he reaches the Orioles' preset pitch limit, he will give way to the originally scheduled starter, right-hander Jake Renshaw (6-4, 4.73).

While the Blue Rocks have been eliminated from winning the Northern Division's first-half title, they can still finish both in second place and above .500. Wilmington now enjoys a two-game lead over the third-place Keys and has six games left on the half.

The Blue Rocks have won back-to-back games for the first time since June 1-2.


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