CarL1 Wilmington Blue Rocks

Rocks Get One-Hit, But Win with Five-Run Ninth Inning

Published on May 1, 2019 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


Frederick, MD - In what may have been the weirdest game in recent memory, the Wilmington Blue Rocks rallied for a 5-4 win over the Frederick Keys on Tuesday at Nymeo Field. The Rocks erased a four-run deficit by scoring five times in the final frame. Wilmington did it courtesy of just a single hit, which was its only knock of the entire game.

Ironically, the frame began with a strikeout of Martin Gasparini. From there the Blue Crew drew consecutive walks courtesy of pinch hitters Blake Perkins and Nick Pratto. That ended Travis Seabrooke's night as he was replaced by Luis Perez, who immediately walked Seuly Matias to load the bases.

Frederick then made a costly error when Yeltsin Gudino booted Sebastian Rivero's grounder to short. Perkins scored on the play and the bases remained loaded. MJ Melendez followed by inducing the fourth free pass of the inning, which forced in another run and brought Wilmington to within 4-2. Another errant pitch brought the Rocks to within a single score when a Perez wild pitch brought home Matias. Suddenly the tying-run was at third and the go-ahead run was at second despite the fact that the Blue Crew were still hitless on the night.

Frederick moved to within one out of a combined no-no when Dennicher Carrasco popped out. But Cristian Perez ended the no-hit bid and put Wilmington ahead to stay all with one swing. He launched a liner that bounced over the fence in left for a two-run ground-rule double.

The rally spoiled a magnificent effort by Michael Baumann. The Frederick righty fanned 12 over 6.2 hitless and scoreless frames. The only base runners he allowed came on walks in the fifth and seventh innings.

Meanwhile, an elevated pitch count prevented Wilmington starter Marcelo Martinez from making it through the fifth inning for the second straight start. Martinez allowed three runs on six hits and five walks. He threw 91 pitches in just 4.2 frames.

Tyler Zuber (1-2) tossed a pair of scoreless innings to pick up the win. The second-year Blue Rock fanned three and allowed only one baserunner via a walk.

Wilmington continues its seven-game road trip on Wednesday with another contest in Frederick. Southpaw Daniel Tillo (2-1, 4.57) gets the start for the Rocks with first pitch slated for 7 p.m. Fans can catch all the action with the Voice of the Blue Rocks Cory Nidoh on 89.7 WGLS-FM or BlueRocks.com.

PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:

The Blue Rocks used more pinch hitters in the ninth inning on Tuesday than they had over the first 25 games of the 2019 campaign. The Rocks had made two in-game changes at the plate coming into the final frame of Tuesday's miraculous comeback. In the ninth inning alone Martin Gasparini, Blake Perkins and Nick Pratto all were given pinch-hit tries. Gasparini struck out, but Perkins and Pratto both walked and scored runs that helped pave the way to a Wilmington win.

For the first time in 2019 the Blue Rocks were delayed by Mother Nature, but ended up playing. Wilmington endured a 61-minute rain delay on Tuesday thanks to wet weather that arrived shortly before the originally scheduled first pitch. The Blue Crew had been impacted by rain three times earlier in the season, but on all three occasions the game had been rained out. Coincidentally, all of those postponements came on Fridays.

The Wilmington defense continues to struggle in 2019. The Rocks committed another error on Tuesday and now have at least one defensive miscue in 12 of the last 13 games. The Blue Crew is last in the Carolina League with 36 total errors as a team. The club has committed at least three errors in five different contests, multiple defensive miscues in 10 games and one in all but five.

Wilmington has had an odd schedule to start the 2019 season. Wilmington opened the campaign with a series against Salem and then played 17 consecutive games against CL South opponents. The Rocks went 9-8 during that stretch. The Blue Crew are now in the midst of playing 24 out of 27 against the CL North. Wilmington is 4-1 so far during this string of the slate.

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Carolina League Stories from May 1, 2019


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