CarL1 Wilmington Blue Rocks

Rocks Fall in Series Finale

April 22, 2018 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


Frederick, MD - In a series where the Wilmington Blue Rocks' (8-9) offense was scorching at the plate through the first three games, the Blue Crew were held in check in the series finale and fell to the Frederick Keys (7-11) by the score of 6-2 Sunday afternoon. Wilmington had just three hits on the day while Chase Vallot and Khalil Lee each drove in a run in the setback. The loss snaps the Rocks' modest three-game win streak.

The Rocks manufactured the first run of the game on a sacrifice fly from Vallot to score Emmanuel Rivera, who singled to extend his hitting streak to eight games, to give Wilmington an early 1-0 lead in the second. The Keys took their first lead of the game in the fourth. After Preston Palmeiro tied the game with a solo homer, J.C. Escarra singled to right field to make it a 2-1 deficit for the Rocks.

Lee tied the game in the top of the sixth inning when he lofted a sac fly to centerfield to plate Angelo Castellano. However, Frederick pushed the go ahead run across on a double play ball off the bat of Jake Ring before Cole Billingsley launched a two-run homer in the seventh to make it a 5-2 ballgame.  Ring added an insurance run in the eighth with a solo homer to give the game its final score of 6-2.

Jace Vines suffered the tough-luck loss after working six innings, allowed three runs, one earned, on five hits. He walked a batter and struck out three.

The Blue Rocks are back in action on Tuesday, April 24 when they begin a six-game homestand at Frawley Stadium. They welcome in the Potomac Nationals to the Riverfront for the first half of the homestand with RHP Anthony Bender (1-0, 5.56 ERA) making the start for the Blue Rocks. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. and fans can listen to the game as Matt Janus and Cory Nidoh have the call on 89.7 WGLS-FM.

PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:

The Rocks took three out of four from Frederick and put together arguably their best offensive series so far this season. Wilmington outscored the Keys 31-20 in the four-game series. Wilmington put up 10-plus runs in the series opener (10) and in Saturday's come-from-behind win (12). Three different players drove in five runs as Chase Vallot and Rudy Martin tied career-highs driving in five runs apiece in the series opener while Kort Peterson set a new-career high on Saturday when he drove in five and posted his first-career multi-homer game.

Third baseman Emmanuel Rivera has been a consistent bat in the Wilmington lineup over the last eight games. After going 1-for-3 with a pair of RBI Saturday afternoon, he picked up a base hit in his first at-bat Sunday to extend his hitting streak to eight games. The 21-year-old is hitting .313 during that stretch (10-for-32). It marks the longest hitting streak by a Blue Rock this season. He has also been a run producer, driving in eight runs over his last five games.

THEY SAID IT, MANAGER DARRYL KENNEDY:

On thoughts on team's performance in Frederick series: "I thought it was a little bit of everything. IN four days, we accomplished quite a few things. The first night, we had a blowout and it was good to see the guys swing the bats well. The next night we win 2-0, played great defense and had great pitching. The next night we got down big and was able to come back and get a win. The guys played hard. We got beat (Sunday), but you can't hang your head on a 3-1 road trip.

On Vines: "His attacked the zone. His sinker was working and he did a great job. He and Doug (Henry) have spent a lot of hours watching old videos and whatever they did, it worked because he looked good. That's the Jace Vines we had in Spring Training and the one you remember from last year. Even though he got the loss, he worked six innings, just one earned run, he pitched well."

On defense committing errors: "Errors are going to happen. The level that we are at, that's what happens. We will make a great play and on a routine play we get too relaxed and make an error. Hopefully as the year goes on, we eliminate those routine mistakes and move on as developing as players."

On offense manufacturing runs: "Sometimes we have to do that. We did a really good job the first three games running the bases and really put them on a defense. (Sunday) Frederick wasn't going to let us steal a base. Their pitcher was very quick to the plate. We had to find ways to do it. We manufactured very well (Sunday). (Chris) DeVito who has been struggling and trying to find his swing again, he hits a ground ball to second base to move the runner over to third and then we hit a sac fly to score the runner. We did that twice (Sunday). As teams focus more on trying to stop us from stealing bases, we will have to manufacture runs."

On Chase Vallot and Chris DeVito: "I think it's a little bit of everything (on offensive struggles). I think they might be going out there trying to do too much, thinking too much in the box. They are putting in a lot of work with hitting coach Abraham Nunez. I think slowly but surely, they are getting better and hopefully this day off will be a nice little breath of fresh air and they come back Tuesday strong and ready to go.

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