CarL1 Wilmington Blue Rocks

K-Tribe Avoids Sweep with 3-1 Win

Published on June 9, 2010 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


Wilmington, DE - For much of the afternoon on Wednesday it appeared as though wet weather would wipe out any chance of the Wilmington Blue Rocks and Kinston Indians finishing off their three-game set at Frawley Stadium. But as night arrived, a break in the weather brought the opportunity to play ball. As it turned out, it was not a good break for the Rocks, who fell to the K-Tribe, 3-1. The Wilmington loss ended its season-best tying four-game winning streak.

Kinston got single tallies in the fifth and sixth innings to erase an early 1-0 deficit. The K-Tribe plated its first score thanks to a pair of singles. Chris Kersten poked a grounder into left field to open the frame. He went to second on Richard Martinez's sharp grounder to first, and went to third on a wild pitch. That forced the infield to come in, which allowed Ronald Rivas' bouncer up the middle to get past a diving Juan Rivera.

Kinston went ahead for good in the next frame. Jason Kipnis singled on a grounder through the hole between first and second. He moved into scoring position when Doug Pickens followed with another single. Kipnis then took off on a pitch to Lucas Montero, which forced third baseman Jamie Romak to break toward the bag. Montero's sharp grounder went right to where Romak had vacated and into left field for an RBI knock.

Both runs came against starter Ivor Hodgson, who took the loss. Hodgson (2-5) surrendered nine singles to go along with the two tallies. He did whiff seven, while walking none.

Wilmington put together a good threat in the bottom of the seventh. With one out, Jamar Walton hit a sharp grounder that bounced just off the tip of the glove of Kipnis at second base for an infield single. He advanced all the way to third on a grounder to the right side of the infield off the bat of Rey Navarro. After a Kinston pitching change brought in reliever Travis Turek, catcher Travis Jones bounced out sharply to the shortstop.

Turek replaced starter Joe Gardner, who was magnificent. He allowed a first-inning run when Nick Francis singled, stole second, moved to third on a grounder to second and came home on Gardner's wild pitch. But that was it for the rest of his outing.

Wilmington's offense managed just four hits off the right-hander. From the third inning until Walton's infield single in the seventh, the Rocks sent 13 players to the plate without getting a knock.

Kinston added a huge insurance run off reliever Eric Basurto in the ninth. Basurto walked three, and balked in the score. The reliever has now balked in three runs in his last two appearances.

Eric Hosmer tried to give Wilmington life in the last of the ninth. He roped a one-out double to the gap in left-center. Romak followed with a single off the glove of the shortstop Rivas, and Walton lined one into left-center field to load the bases with just one away.

But Cory Burns got Navarro on strikes and Travis Johnson to bounce out to third, to pick up his seventh save as a K-Triber.

After going 5-2 during this seven-game homestand, Wilmington will hit the road for an eight-day seven-game road trip that opens in Winston-Salem on Thursday night. Right-hander Alex Caldera (5-3, 2.92) will take the hill for the Rocks, while the Dash is slated to counter with Nevin Griffith (4-1, 2.77).

PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:

Jamie Romak waited until his last at-bat before extending his hitting streak to 17 games with his infield single in the ninth inning. The third baseman is batting a blistering .438 (28-for-64) over these last 17 games.

Nick Francis was able to extend his hitting streak to a season-best nine games with his first-inning single. The right fielder also reached on an error and scored a run. Francis is hitting .306 (11-for-36) during the streak.

Wilmington catcher Travis Jones made his Wilmington Blue Rocks debut on Wednesday night. The backstop committed two passed balls defensively, and went 0-for-4 at the plate.

Ivor Hodgson reached a season-high in strikeouts for the second consecutive start. After fanning six Potomac Nationals in 7.1 innings on Friday night, Hodgson whiffed seven Kinston Indians on Wednesday.

Neither team issued a single free pass over the first eight frames. Wilmington reliever Eric Basurto's walk of Chris Kersten to open the top of the ninth was the first of the game.

The game got started 11 minutes late due to rain, with first pitch at Frawley Stadium coming at 7:16 p.m.

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Carolina League Stories from June 9, 2010


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