CarL1 Wilmington Blue Rocks

Pelicans Pound Pimentel, Rout Rocks

Published on May 29, 2011 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


Myrtle Beach, SC - Three straight walks in the third inning illustrated the command difficulties for Elisaul Pimentel (3-3). The six runs that ultimately crossed in the frame made for an exclamation point. The Myrtle Beach Pelicans (30-19) pummeled Wilmington's starter en route to a 9-3 rout of the Blue Crew (28-20) and a three-game sweep. The Blue Rocks had not been swept at Myrtle Beach since at least 2004. Combined with Frederick's 4-3 defeat of the Salem Red Sox, Wilmington's lead in the Carolina League's Northern Division has slimmed from 4.0 games to half a game, one in the loss column, in three days.

Despite the final score, the Blue Rocks drew first blood in the game. Whit Merrifield singled Justin Grimm's second pitch of the night into center field. He promptly stole second and third on the hurler, getting huge jumps both times. Carlo Testa's right-side groundout got Merrifield home for a 1-0 Wilmington lead. Grimm (1-0) rebounded though, whiffing consecutive men and not allowing another run over six innings of work to win his Advanced-A debut.

Pimentel needed just six pitches to author a perfect first inning. In the second, Mike Olt walked and Zach Zaneski singled to put a pair on with nobody out. Consecutive outs in the air followed before Santiago Chirino's first professional home run made it 4-0. His two-out blow rattled around in the third row of seats just over the shallow left-field fence.

The next inning, Jared Hoying singled sharply up the middle with one away. Pimentel responded with three straight walks, the third of which, on a full count to Zaneski, pushed in a run. A strikeout later, Mitch Hilligoss' single to right knocked in two runs and Chirino sent another plateward with his hit to right that chased Pimentel.

Bryan Paukovits entered and gave up a two-run double to a vacated right-center gap against Leury Garcia to round out the scoring. Paukovits faced the minimum thereafter over his 3.1 innings of work.

Alas, the deficit proved too much. Jose Bonilla's RBI single, multiple fielder's choices and Garcia's 13th error of the season combined for two unearned runs against reliever Kennil Gomez in the seventh. That would be all the run scoring for the Blue Rocks on the night.

The seven-game road trip shifts to Kinston, NC with the first of four getting underway at 4:30 p.m. on Memorial Day. Right-hander Tim Melville (5-4, 4.24) is scheduled to throw for the Blue Rocks against a fellow ranked prospect, Indians southpaw Drew Pomeranz (1-1, 2.09). Broadcast coverage begins at 4 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:

Elisaul Pimentel logged the second-shortest start of his five-year professional career. He allowed a career-worst nine runs over 2.2 innings on five hits and four walks. His season-long ERA ballooned from 3.86 to 5.36 based on Sunday's outing alone.

Wilmington suffered its fifth straight series defeat at Myrtle Beach. The Blue Rocks last took a set at the Grand Strand from July 21-23, 2009. The franchise has posted a winning record just once at Myrtle Beach since 2001. The Blue Crew is guaranteed of a non-winning mark in the Palmetto State yet again with a 1-5 record already in the books this year. Only four meetings remain between the clubs at Coastal Field.

Exactly one week after the Blue Rocks swept the Pelicans in a three-game set at Frawley Stadium, the Pelicans returned the favor at Coastal Field. At Frawley, the Blue Rocks outscored the Pelicans 18-8 with the most lopsided win being the 9-3 middle game. In Myrtle Beach, the Pelicans outscored the Blue Rocks 16-5 with the most lopsided win being Sunday's 9-3 finale.

In scoring five runs during the course of the three-game sweep defeat, the Blue Rocks went 3-for-20 (.150) with runners in scoring position.

Bryan Paukovits tossed 3.1 scoreless innings for the second straight outing. The former starter has lowered his ERA to 3.13, his lowest number since he went 3.1 scoreless innings in his first outing of the year at Kinston on April 12.

In nine games against the Blue Rocks, Pelicans third baseman Mike Olt has hit .500 (13-for-26) with seven extra-base hits, 10 RBIs, 11 walks and nine runs scored. His OPS in those meetings stands at 1.649. He was 1-for-2 with two walks and two runs scored on Sunday.

The bottom three hitters in Myrtle Beach's order combined to go 5-for-12 with a double, a homer and eight RBIs.

Yem Prades and Deivy Batista each had two-hit nights. In seven games as a professional, Prades has hit .346 (9-for-26) with four doubles. Batista continues to sizzle of late. Over his last 12 games he has hit .381 (16-for-42) in lifting his season-long average by 75 points (.165-.240).

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