CarL1 Wilmington Blue Rocks

Rocks roll to victory

Published on July 17, 2008 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


Salem, VA - The Wilmington Blue Rocks fell a few outs shy of recording their sixth shutout of the season, but gladly settled for a 7-2 victory over the Salem Avalanche at Memorial Stadium on Thursday night. Right-hander Ed Cegarra tied a career high with eight innings pitched and first baseman Brad Correll thumped his second home run as a Blue Rock, as Wilmington (47-49, 12-14) took the opener of an important seven-game road swing.

Cody Strait helped keep the shutout bid alive in the bottom of the eighth when he threw a one-hop laser to the plate to cut down Greg Buchanan, who tried to score from second on a Mark Ori single to right.

But, the Avs finally cracked the scoreboard in the ninth against reliever Greg Holland. Jimmy Van Ostrand socked a leadoff single and Tim Torres doubled to put runners at second and third. Salem pushed its first run across on a Brian Bogusevic grounder to second and a second run came home on Kevin Carkeek's two-out single.

The night belonged the Cegarra (3-4) and the Blue Rocks, though. Cegarra's previous outing was a miserable one, as the 19-year-old went a season-worst three innings and allowed three homers in a no-decision against Lynchburg last Saturday. But, the Venezuelan rediscovered success on the same mound on which he made his Carolina League debut on May 28. Cegarra held Salem to five hits, all singles, over eight scoreless innings with five strikeouts. The outing is his longest as a Blue Rock and matches his deepest professional outing, which occurred on May 9 of this season while pitching for Low-A Burlington.

The Blue Rocks dented the scoreboard in the first on Correll's blast. The Gastonia, NC native drilled a two-out solo shot over the 20-foot wall in left-center field. Correll went 2-for-5 on the night and now has an eight-game hitting streak.

Chris McConnell gave Wilmington a 2-0 lead in the third with an RBI single up the box that glanced off the pitching arm of Salem starter Sergio Severino.

Severino (0-2) remained in the contest despite the glancing blow, but was not long for the game. The 23-year-old southpaw gave out a free pass to Kurt Mertins to start the fourth and then yielded a single to Josh Johnson before Avs manager Jim Pankovits lifted Severino. With runners at the corners, Jason Dominguez came on and gave up a fly ball off the bat of Jeff Bianchi that was misplayed in right field by Bogusevic, allowing a run to score. The Rocks gave themselves a 4-0 cushion when Johnson came across on Jeff Howell's double play ball.

An odd sequence in the sixth produced the fifth Wilmington run. With the bases jammed and no outs, Jarrod Dyson hit a fly ball to deep left field that eluded Colin DeLome. But, with some confusion over whether DeLome snagged the ball or not, the runners initially held up and, as a result, Dyson wound up surpassing the runner at first base, Howell. A run scored on the play, but Dyson was called out. The Rocks got just the one run, stranding a pair in scoring position in the inning.

The Blue Rocks finished their scoring in the seventh with a couple of scores against reliever Raymar Diaz. Diaz, who squirmed out of the previous inning's jam with just one run allowed, gave up a single to Correll and a double to Strait to open the frame. Johnson flied out to deep center for a sac fly and Bianchi singled to center for Wilmington's two tallies.

The Blue Rocks and Avalanche play the middle contest of their three-game set at 7:07 p.m. on Friday night. Australian southpaw Paul Mildren (0-2, 5.40) takes the start for Wilmington, while lefty Douglas Arguello (6-3, 2.84) gets the nod for Salem.

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Carolina League Stories from July 17, 2008


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