CarL1 Wilmington Blue Rocks

Late Rocks Rally Comes Up Short

May 11, 2010 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


Wilmington, DE - It was almost an historic night at Frawley Stadium. The Wilmington Blue Rocks came up one run shy of registering the second-largest comeback in franchise history. Wilmington, which trailed 9-1 with two outs in the eighth, scored seven straight runs before falling 9-8 to the Lynchburg Hillcats on a wet and cold Tuesday night at Frawley Stadium.

The Rocks plated three runs in the eighth to climb back to within five scores. Rey Navarro brought home one tally with his RBI single over short. Eric Hosmer followed with an infield single. Two runs actually scored on the play as an errant throw by Cody Puckett got by Carlos Mendez.

In the ninth, Wilmington put its first five men on base in the frame to bring the potential winning run to the plate with nobody out.

Jamar Walton opened the wild inning with a single to left. Salvador Perez doubled through the hole at second to put two men in scoring position. Jamie Romak then plated Walton with his single to left, and Lynchburg manager Pat Kelly had seen enough. He went to the bullpen and inserted Lance Janke.

Eddie Prasch was immediately hit by a pitch to load the bases. When J.D. Alfaro singled up the middle, Wilmington had made it a 9-6 game with the sacks full and no outs.

But Adrian Ortiz slowed the momentum when he whiffed for the frame's first out. Navarro followed with a 2-2 swing and a miss for out number two.

That gave Hosmer the opportunity to play the role of hero for the second straight night. Hosmer's RBI double in the 10th inning on Monday gave Wilmington its first walk-off win of the season. The first baseman could not give the Rocks a victory this time around, but he did plate two runs with a bloop-single to right-center. His fisted pop-fly fell in between Puckett and left fielder Kyle Day.

Kelly again went to his bullpen, calling on right-hander Nick Christiani, who took the loss a night ago.

Anthony Seratelli extended the inning, and moved the potential winning run into scoring position with a bunt single. Alfaro had to stay at third however, as the ball went up the third-base line, but did not get past the pitcher.

That proved costly, as Walton failed to find his second hit of the inning when he bounced out to first to end the game.

Wilmington starter Tim Melville took the loss. Melville (1-4) surrendered five runs (four earned) on five hits in 5.1 frames.

Lynchburg got its first tally in the second inning, as a Carlos Mendez double to right-center field set up Alex Bucholz's RBI grounder to short, and tied the game at 1-1.

The Hillcats took the lead in the fourth when catcher Devin Mesoraco sent the first pitch he saw over the left-field fence and into the Lynchburg bullpen.

Things really fell apart for Mellville in the sixth. The Hillcats put three runs across on two hits and two costly errors by Perez.

Justin Reed opened the inning with a single. He then stole second and advanced to third on Perez's high throw. After a walk to Josh Fellhauer and a strikeout of Cody Puckett, Mesoraco came through with another extra-base hit. This time he sent a two-run triple into the left-center field gap.

Carlos Mendez followed with a grounder to short. With the infield playing in Navarro fired home and caught Mesoraco in a rundown. But Perez bumped into his catching counterpart and was called for interference, which allowed the Hillcats to up the advantage to, 5-1.

Brendan Lafferty entered the game at that point, and while he escaped that frame without further damage, he ran into trouble in the very next inning.

Lafferty allowed three runs in the seventh on a Puckett sacrifice fly, a wild pitch and a Mesoraco RBI single. He surrendered one last score in the eighth when Bucholz hit his first home run of the season.

As it turned out, each of those runs were critical to Lynchburg's cause.

The Blue Rocks and Hillcats face off again at Frawley Stadium on Wednesday night at 6:35 p.m. Southpaw Ivor Hodgson (2-2, 6.00) takes the hill for the Rocks against Lynchburg right-hander Curtis Prasch (1-2, 3.96).

PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:

With the setback Wilmington has now registered losses in seven of its last eight games at Frawley Stadium.

The Rocks also fell short in their effort to get consecutive overall victories, something they have only done twice in 32 games so far this season.

Lynchburg catcher Devin Mesoraco is just wearing Wilmington out. The 21-year-old Pennsylvania native finished the night 3-for-5 with four RBIs and two runs scored. He is now 7-for-10 over the first two games of this four-game set.

Check out the Wilmington Blue Rocks Statistics



Carolina League Stories from May 11, 2010


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