CarL1 Wilmington Blue Rocks

Afternoon Exultation in Wilmington

Published on July 28, 2010 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


Wilmington, DE - In their biggest series of the 2010 season to date, the Wilmington Blue Rocks took two of three from the Potomac Nationals. The Rocks had to ride a roller coaster to get there, but an RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning by Adam Frost gave Wilmington a 5-4 win on Wednesday afternoon at Frawley Stadium. With the victory, the Rocks extended their lead in the CL North standings to 2.0 games.

The Rocks seemed headed for a relatively easy victory when they entered the eighth with a two-run lead. Potomac put two men on in the frame, but reliever Jairo Cuevas appeared to work his way out of the jam when he induced a two-out lazy fly ball to right. Wilmington outfielder Nick Francis camped under the ball and seemed poised to make the grab, but at the last second Francis lost sight of the ball in the sun. As a result, he missed the catch and both runners circled around to score, tying the game at 3-3.

Potomac then took a one-run lead in the ninth on Jose Lozada's sacrifice fly to left.

Down, 4-3, Wilmington's ninth started with a strikeout by Salvador Perez, but four consecutive singles followed to give the Rocks a walk-off win. Joey Lewis sparked the rally with his bloop-single into left-center. After Fernando Garcia was inserted as a pinch-runner for Lewis, Rey Navarro singles to put the potential tying-run aboard for Rene Oriental. The outfielder authored his biggest hit as a Blue Crewer, scoring Garcia with his line-drive single to tie the game.

The only negative was that Navarro got cut down on the play at third for the second out of the inning. But Oriental re-ignited the rally when he stole second, allowing Frost's single to left to score him with the winning run.

Before all the drama, Wilmington got a spectacular pitching performance from starter Ivor Hodgson. The left-hander surrendered just one run on four hits in seven frames of work, and left in line for what should have been his sixth win of the season. .

Hodgson retired the first six batters of the game, faced the minimum through three frames and did not allow a run through his first six innings pitched. But his most impressive feat was limiting the damage from Potomac in top of the seventh.

With Wilmington on top, 2-0, the Mt. St. Mary's product yielded back-to-back hits to open the frame. Tyler Moore got things started with a single. After he moved up to second base on a wild pitch, Moore came home on Robbie Jacobsen's RBI triple to the left-center field alley. The three-bag base hit put the tying run just 90 feet from the plate with no outs.

But Hodgson quickly regained the form which carried him over his spectacular first six innings. He got a grounder back to the mound from Sean Rooney, fanned Bill Rhinehart and retired Lozada on a fly ball to right .to end the inning. That was the last batter Hodgson would face, as he finished his afternoon with seven strikeouts and left with a one-run lead.

The Rocks made it a two-tally advantage in the bottom of the seventh. Wilmington added an insurance run courtesy of a Lewis double and an RBI single by Oriental. The Blue Crew had plated its other two scores on a run-scoring single by Patrick Norris in the third and Perez's RBI single in the fourth.

The seventh-inning run should have salted the game away, but then came Francis' error in the eighth, and things got dramatic.

After taking two of three from the P-Nats, Wilmington welcomes the Kinston Indians to town on Thursday night at 7:05 p.m. Southpaw Will Smith makes his Wilmington debut on the mound. Smith was acquired by the Royals from the Los Angeles Angels in the Alberto Callaspo trade. Kinston will counter with left-hander T.J. House (3-8, 4.18).

PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:

The Rocks scored first on Wednesday for the first time in the three-game set with the P-Nats. Potomac had taken a 10-run advantage before Wilmington finally scored on Monday, and led, 2-0, prior to the Rocks exploding for a seven-run seventh inning on their 8-2 victory on Tuesday.

It was not easy, but the Rocks improved their record when leading after seven innings to 43-4. Wilmington had lost two late leads in its last nine games entering Wednesday. The Blue Crew also earned its first win of the year when trailing entering the bottom of the ninth.

The walk-off win was Wilmington's fifth of the season, and their first of the year against Potomac. The Rocks also improved 3-0 against to 3-0 against the P-Nats in one-run games and 19-13 in such contests on the season.

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Carolina League Stories from July 28, 2010


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