CarL1 Wilmington Blue Rocks

Rocks Hold on to Edge Myrtle Beach

Published on July 11, 2011 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


Wilmington, DE - It sure was not pretty on Monday night at Frawley Stadium, but the end result was beautiful as far as the Wilmington Blue Rocks were concerned. In a game that saw five errors, two passed balls and five double plays combined between the two teams, the Blue Crew held on for a 3-2 victory over the Myrtle Beach Pelicans.

Justin Marks was the key to Wilmington's win. The left-hander did his best Houdini impersonation by wiggling his way into and out of numerous en route to six scoreless innings pitched.

Marks' magic act began in the opening inning when he saw the first two Myrtle Beach batters reach on errors. So the pitcher used some defense of his own to quell the threat, picking Leury Garcia off of second base.

The 23-year-old Kentucky native used his glove to get out of two more jams later in the contest. He avoided damage after a leadoff double in the fourth by stabbing a line drive and then tossing it to third to complete a rally-killing double play. Marks (5-6) then showed off his reflexes by fielding a sharp one-hopper to the mound with two down and runners at second and third in the sixth.

Wilmington's offense did much of its work early. The Rocks plated a pair in the opening frame for the third straight time. John Whittleman drove in one of the scores with his RBI grounder to first and Ryan Stovall added another on a double that landed on the warning track in center.

The Blue Crew increased its lead to 3-0 in the fifth thanks to horrible defense by the Pelicans. Myrtle Beach committed three errors in the frame, which allowed Kurt Mertins' infield single to plate Travis Jones.

The run proved to be enormous in the ninth. Brendan Lafferty came on and was one out away from nailing down his second save of the season. Jared Bolden was down in the count 0-2, but the first baseman was not ready to go home quite yet as he sent a laser over the right-field fence that pulled the Pelicans within a single score. Edgar Garcia was summoned out of the bullpen and finished off Myrtle Beach by getting Garcia to fly out to left-center to end the game.

The Rocks get Tuesday off before welcoming the first-half champion Frederick Keys to town for a four-game series that starts at Frawley Stadium on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. Broadcast coverage begins at 6:35 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. For tickets call 302-888-BLUE or visit bluerocks.com.

PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:

Ryan Stovall turned in his third consecutive multi-hit performance and his fourth in Wilmington's last six games. Stovall went 2-for-3 on Monday with a double and an RBI. The infielder went 6-for-12 in the three-game series with the Pelicans.

Travis Jones made his 2011 Advanced-A debut for Wilmington in the win. The catcher went 1-for-3 and scored a run, but he also committed a pair of passed balls. Jones had two passed balls in his first game with the Rocks in 2010 as well.

Kurt Mertins had his best outing since joining the Blue Rocks a little over a week ago. The infielder had three hits although two of them failed to leave the infield. In his seven previous contests with Wilmington Mertins had managed only three hits total.

Wilmington was just one out shy of posting consecutive shutouts for the first time in 2011. The Rocks had not accomplished that feat since June of 2009 when Wilmington blanked four straight opponents at Frawley Stadium.

Myrtle Beach went just 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position in the losing cause. The Pelicans were a paltry 1-for-17 in the final two contests of the three-game set with runners at second and/or third. Not coincidentally, Myrtle Beach lost both of those contests.

The Rocks improved to 2-5 on the season in rubber matches.

Check out the Wilmington Blue Rocks Statistics

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Carolina League Stories from July 11, 2011


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