CarL1 Wilmington Blue Rocks

Lynchburg Amasses 10 Extra-Base Hits, Hammers Arguelles

August 5, 2011 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


Lynchburg, VA - Different city, different night, same story. The Lynchburg Hillcats (46-64, 16-24) plated nine unanswered runs, chased a heralded Wilmington starter before the close of the third and beat the Blue Rocks (51-58, 15-25) in a series opener on Friday night, 9-4. While the Blue Rocks outhit Lynchburg, 12-11, the Hillcats sent 10 of their knocks for extra bases. Southpaw Noel Arguelles (4-5) allowed six of the runs on seven hits and a career-high-tying four walks over just 2.2 innings to take the loss. The Blue Rocks have lost nine of 11 on the road including three of four on this road trip.

Three hits combined to produce a 1-0 Wilmington lead in the second inning. A key hit-and-run single by Tim Ferguson saw a hustling Ryan Stovall go first to third with one away. The day after his birthday, Jose Bonilla sent Stovall home with a just-fair single down the right-field line. Lynchburg starter David Hale (3-4) would allow just one hit from that point until the start of the seventh.

During that time, his team raced out to a 9-1 lead with crooked numbers in the second, third and fourth. Gerry Rodriguez doubled in two of the runs in the second, while Andrelton Simmons doubled in the third. Arguelles then allowed five of the first six hitters in the third inning to reach before he got the hook. Keenan Wiley delivered the big blow with a bases-loaded double that made it 6-0. He tried to stretch it into a triple, but was gunned down by Yem Prades from center.

L.V. Ware's double forced Brian Rupp to bring on Dusty Odenbach who retired Todd Cunningham on one pitch to end the inning. Joe Leonard took Odenbach out of the yard with a two-run shot to right-center in the fourth and Joey Terdoslavich sent his team-leading 16th homer of the season off the top of the wall in left-center for a 9-1 score in the sixth.

Hale entered the seventh having retired 12 of 14. The former Princeton University Tiger coughed up four straight hits to end that run. Ferguson's second hit of the night started the inning. On the next pitch, Bonilla doubled to right and a terrible throw by Ware missed the cutoff man, errantly allowing Ferguson to score.

Gerard Hall doubled the next pitch to send Bonilla home, but Hall found himself thrown out at the plate by Ware when he tried the same on Whit Merrifield's single to right. Merrifield took second on the toss and Lynchburg skipper Luis Salazar put Matt Crim in for Hale.

One out later, Nick Van Stratten singled home Merrifield to make it 9-4. Hale allowed four runs on nine hits over 6.1 innings. He struck out six and walked none, but hit two batters.

The three-game set continues at 6:05 p.m. on Saturday night. Wilmington right-hander Elisaul Pimentel (5-6, 3.49) makes his first start since July 19. He made four relief appearances in an effort to limit his innings. Lynchburg counters with southpaw Dimasther Delgado (7-6, 4.13), who has made six relief appearances since the start of July in a similar move by the Braves to limit innings pitched. Broadcast coverage begins at 5:35 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.

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