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CarL1 Myrtle Beach Pelicans

Four-run Wilmington eighth makes winner out of right-hander

May 20, 2011 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Myrtle Beach Pelicans News Release


WILMINGTON, DE - Wilmington starter Tyler Sample allowed two runs over the span of four batters in the second inning, barely facing a baserunner otherwise, and a four-run Wilmington eighth got him a win as the Blue Rocks took the opener of three with the Pelicans 6-4 Friday night at Daniel S. Frawley Stadium.

In a matchup of the Carolina League's two first-place teams, it looked like the Pelicans had seized the game's shifting early momentum with two second-inning tallies against Sample to erase an early 1-0 deficit. Mike Olt connected with the righty's first offering of the second and slugged it over the left field wall for a solo shot homer, the third baseman's seventh jack of the year, to knot things at a run apiece. Three batters later, after a Mitch Hilligoss double and Zach Zaneski single, David Paisano's sacrifice fly scored the Birds' second run and gave Myrtle Beach starter Robbie Ross a 2-1 lead.

Ross continually worked out of trouble through five innings of duty, scattering eight hits and stranding eight Blue Rocks on base. Wilmington was appealed out of a run in the bottom of the fourth when home plate umpire Guss Curtis ruled that Jose Bonilla left third base too early on a would-be game-tying sacrifice fly from Carlo Testa. The unconventional 7-2-5 double play ended the inning, but the Blue Rocks drew even when John Whittleman doubled and scored the second unearned run of the game against Ross in the bottom of the fifth to make it 2-2.

The Blue Rocks kept getting hits but kept getting turned away by Ross and reliever Ryan Kelly until the eighth. Myrtle Beach shortstop Leury Garcia committed an inning-opening error to allow Alex McClure to reach, and with one out and the bases loaded, former South Carolina Gamecocks College World Series hero Whit Merrifield singled home a pair to break the deadlock and give Wilmington a 4-2 lead. Kelly (2-2) departed after that base hit, but Trevor Hurley's first pitch to Testa turned into another pair of runs as the Blue Rocks outfielder drove a triple to left-center for a 6-2 lead. Wilmington outhit the Pelicans 12-3 going to the ninth.

The eighth-inning outburst made a winner of Sample (2-3) who didn't allow another hit and only allowed one more baserunner after the second. When removing that frame, the righty from Denver, Colorado faced one over the minimum on his night, striking out two, walking two, and generating eleven groundouts to nine in the air. Though the Pelicans plated two against reliever Bryan Paukovits in the ninth, lefty Ryan Dennick (S, 2) got the game's final out when he whiffed potential game-tying run David Paisano with one aboard to end the threat.

Saturday, the Pelicans will send righty Wilfredo Boscan (0-1, 4.63) in his second start in a Myrtle Beach uniform against Wilmington right-hander Jake Odorizzi (3-0, 2.45) with first pitch scheduled for 6:05 p.m.

After a Monday off, the Birds return home to the Grand Strand for the first of six with the Salem Red Sox and Wilmington Blue Rocks on May 24. Tickets for all Pelicans home games can be purchased by visiting the BB&T Coastal Field Box office, the Tickets page at MyrtleBeachPelicans.com, or by calling (843)918-6000 or (877)918-TIXX.

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