Rocks Lose Late Inning Battle with P-Nats
Published on May 23, 2018 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release
Woodbridge, VA - For the second straight night the Wilmington Blue Rocks (18-27) rallied late in the game, but ultimately fell short in gut-wrenching fashion. The Potomac Nationals (24-18) After rallying from a three-run and one-run deficit in the final two innings, the Blue Crew were walked-off in the bottom of the ninth inning on a Jake Noll sacrifice fly in a 6-5 defeat Wednesday night at Northwest Federal Field. Khalil Lee paced the offense with three hits. The Blue Rocks are now 1-5 on their seven-game road trip.
After the P-Nats took a 5-4 lead in the bottom of the eighth, the rallying Rocks authored a quick response in the top of the ninth inning. D.J. Burt ripped his first triple of the season to right-centerfield and Lee scored him with a single for his third hit of the night. However, the Rocks stranded the bases loaded to end the threat and inning. That was the frustrating theme of the ballgame for Wilmington. The Blue Crew left 12 total men on base and went 4-for-14 with runners in scoring position.
Wilmington put two on with only one out in both the second and fourth innings, but failed to score. The Rocks stranded a runner at third in the third frame and left men at the corners in the fifth despite the frame ending with a hit by Kort Peterson. In a cruel twist of fate, Peterson smashed a grounder that was headed for right field, until it found the leg of the runner Lee for an inning-ending out.
The Rocks were able to finally cash in when they tied the game in the eighth inning and sent eight men to the plate in the rallying inning. Lee and Emmanuel Rivera singled before Peterson was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Chris DeVito struck out on a wild pitch to allow Lee to score before Gabriel Cancel smashed a two-run double to centerfield to tie the game at 4-4.
The Blue Crew scored their initial run on an RBI triple by Lee in the third inning. Wilmington worked six walks in only 4.1 innings from Potomac starter Joan Baez, but the Potomac starter worked himself in and out of trouble.
Wilmington starter Ofreidy Gomez turned in a quality start in a no-decision. He allowed a two-run homer in the first inning to Alec Keller and uncorked a wild pitch in the fifth for his three earned runs allowed. He scattered five hits, walked two and struck out a pair.
The Rocks wrap up the road trip on Thursday at Potomac. Right-hander Gerson Garabito (1-3, 2.88) gets the ball for Wilmington against P-Nats southpaw Matthew Crownover (1-4, 5.13). First pitch is slated for 7:05 p.m. and fans can listen to the action as Matt Janus and Cory Nidoh have the call on 89.7 WGLS-FM.
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