CarL1 Wilmington Blue Rocks

Rocks Routed for Second Straight Night

Published on May 3, 2011 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


Wilmington, DE - As the old saying goes, it was d�j� vu all over again for the Wilmington Blue Rocks on Tuesday at Frawley Stadium. For the second consecutive night, the Lynchburg Hillcats wracked up double-digit hits, the Blue Crew offense fell silent and Wilmington suffered its most lopsided victory of the season, losing on Tuesday, 11-1.

Lynchburg out-hit the Rocks, 15-4, doing much of its damage by posting a pair of crooked numbers in a four-run fourth and a six-tally eighth.

The Hillcats plated their first score of the night in the third, courtesy of an RBI single by Andrelton Simmons. They added four more an inning later against Wilmington starter Tyler Sample. Lynchburg sent eight men to the plate in a frame that began innocently enough.

Sample (1-2) set down the inning's first two hitters on strikes, but then issued a pair of two-out free passes that came back to bite him in the backside. They were followed by three straight run-scoring singles off the bats of: Keenan Wiley, L.V. Ware and Simmons. The knocks gave Lynchburg a 5-0 advantage.

Meanwhile, the Wilmington offense failed to mount any sort of a rally early. The Rocks got their only runner of the first three innings on an error by Simmons, but stranded that man, Nick Francis, at third base. When Wilmington finally got its first hit in the fifth off the bat of Carlo Testa, Deivy Batista failed to capitalize. The third baseman lined out with runners at first and second to end the threat.

The Rocks got on the board an inning later courtesy of a triple by Tim Ferguson and then an RBI grounder by Rey Navarro. But it was not nearly enough against a surging Lynchburg team, which has now won eight of 12. Starter Willie Kempf (2-1) yielded just the single score on three hits while fanning seven and walking only one in seven innings to earn the victory.

The Hillcats put an exclamation point on their win by piling on six runs in the eighth against Sample's piggyback partner, Justin Marks. The frame featured a pair of homers by Adam Milligan and Matt Weaver.

Wilmington looks to avoid its first three-game losing streak of the season on Wednesday in the final outing of the team's six-game homestand at Frawley Stadium. Jake Odorizzi (1-0, 2.25) hits the hill for the Rocks, while Lynchburg will welcome back right-hander Cory Rasmus (0-2, 5.40) from the disabled list. Rasmus is slated to toss one frame and then give way to the originally scheduled starter, Matt Crim (1-2, 2.41).

It is a Wawa Wednesday at Frawley Stadium, which means fans can get $2 off their ticket purchase with a receipt from any Wawa store. For tickets call 302-888-BLUE or visit bluerocks.com.

PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:

Adrian Ortiz, who was activated off the disabled list on Sunday, got his first hit of the 2011 season on Tuesday. The outfielder went 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts at the plate in his initial start of the campaign on Monday, but came off the bench for a pinch-hit double in the ninth inning of Wilmington's lopsided loss. Ortiz is in his fourth season as a Blue Rock and was a postseason Carolina League All-Star in 2010.

Rey Navarro's red-hot open to the 2011 campaign has hit its first rough patch. The infielder, who entered the night with the Carolina League's best batting average at .381, went 0-for-4 on Tuesday. He has now gone hitless in three consecutive games for the first time all season and has been without a knock in his previous 13 at-bats.

For the third consecutive night the Wilmington offense could do nothing against the opponent's starting pitcher. The trio of Winston-Salem's Andre Rienzo, and Lynchburg's Chris Masters and Willie Kempf, has dominated the Rocks, allowing just two runs on five hits in 21 innings pitched since Sunday.

For the second time in three days, Wilmington outfielder Carlo Testa tried to kick-start his offense. Testa broke up Rienzo's no-hit bid on Sunday with two outs in the fifth frame, and did the same thing in the very same situation to Kempf on Tuesday night. Testa's single with two down in the fifth was the Rocks' first hit of the evening. Unfortunately, Testa whiffed in each of his other two at-bats of the contest.

Check out the Wilmington Blue Rocks Statistics

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Carolina League Stories from May 3, 2011


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