CarL1 Wilmington Blue Rocks

Cioli's Inside-The-Park Grand Slam Beats Blue Rocks

Published on August 2, 2011 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


Winston-Salem, NC - Grand slams are not a common commodity. But for the gold they represent in the baseball world, inside-the-park grand slams are offensive diamonds. On Tuesday night, Winston-Salem's Nick Cioli found just such a gem when his ball of the center field wall in the third inning made for a game-changing bases-loaded dinger that put the Dash (53-53, 21-15) ahead to stay in a 6-4 win over the Wilmington Blue Rocks (50-56, 14-23).

Tyler Sample (6-9) allowed the grand slam en route to his fourth straight loss. The right-hander became the second Blue Rock ever, and the first since Ken Winkle in 1995, to allow two grand slams in a season. Sample was tagged with six runs on eight hits over 4.1 innings. He walked four and struck out four while allowing at least five runs for the eighth time in 11 outings.

Wilmington briefly led the series opener thanks to consecutive extra-base hits against Cameron Bayne (10-4) in the second inning. Ryan Stovall doubled for the first of his three knocks on the night before Yem Prades bashed a two-run homer to left field for a 2-0 lead.

Alas, Winston would rip off six unanswered runs. It followed Cioli's salami with single scores in the fourth and fifth frames on RBI hits by Jared Mitchell and Mike Blanke respectively.

Bayne gave up four runs on nine hits over seven innings, but earned his first win in three starts against the Blue Crew. Taylor Thompson hurled a scoreless eighth and ninth for his 13th save in 19 tries. However, the game's conclusion was not set in stone.

Gerard Hall bounced a comeback single off Thompson's glove with one out in the ninth. Whit Merrifield followed with a base hit up the middle to extend the Carolina League's top active hitting streak to 14 games and put the tying run on base. Thompson would rebound though, striking out Carlo Testa swinging and Nick Van Stratten looking to end it.

The three-game set continues on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. Wilmington southpaw Justin Marks (5-8, 4.73) gets the ball against right-hander Jake Petricka (2-4, 4.66). Broadcast coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. as studio host Adam Dobrowolski brings fans the Rocks Report Pre-game Show, presented by Wawa, on 89.7 WGLS-FM and online at wgls.rowan.edu.

PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:

Yem Prades extended his hitting streak to nine games with a 2-for-4 night. He has hit .488 (20-for-41) during the streak, lifting his batting average 48 points (.255-.303) in the process.

Wilmington went just 1-for-12 (.083) with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base. The lone hit was Prades' home run.

Tim Ferguson saw his hitting streak stall at 10 games. The left fielder went 0-for-3 with a sacrifice fly to center and a lineout to shortstop.

The Blue Rocks had not allowed an inside-the-park home run since Miles Durham turned the trick on May 15, 2009 at Lynchburg.

The Blue Crew has lost five in a row and seven of eight on the road. It is just 4-13 away from Frawley Stadium on the second half.

Ken Winkle allowed his two grand slams in less than a week's time in 1995. He gave one up to Robbie Robertson at Winston-Salem on April 7 of that year, and allowed one to future big leaguer Randall Simon at Durham on April 13.

Check out the Wilmington Blue Rocks Statistics

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Carolina League Stories from August 2, 2011


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