CarL1 Myrtle Beach Pelicans

Rocks Snap Birds' Six-Game Win Streak

Published on July 20, 2011 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Myrtle Beach Pelicans News Release


MYRTLE BEACH, SC - The Myrtle Beach Pelicans have been pulling off come-from-behind victories all week, but they did not have another in them on Wednesday. Nick Van Stratten had three hits, including the game-winner in the seventh, to lead the Wilmington Blue Rocks to a 6-3 win at BB&T Coastal Field. The defeat snaps the Pelicans' six-game winning streak.

The Blue Rocks got on the board quickly when Merrifield scored on a Ryan Stovall groundout to give the visitors a 1-0 edge in the first. Myrtle Beach would bounce back in the bottom half of the inning and take a 2-1 lead with two-out RBI singles by Zach Zaneski and Jared Prince. With the single, Zaneski extended his hitting streak to 17 games, becoming the first Carolina Leaguer to run up a streak that long this season.

The two starters settled in for the second, third and fourth innings as both Birds righty Wilfredo Boscan and Wilmington right-hander Michael Mariot posted three zeroes. Merrifield tied the game at two in the fifth with a solo home run, but the Birds immediately took the lead back when Leury Garcia doubled, moved to third on a groundout and scored on a Ryan Strausborger sacrifice fly.

The see-saw nature of the game continued in the sixth when Wilmington tied it up on a Boscan wild pitch that plated Stovall from third. The Blue Rocks would take the lead for good in the seventh with two infield singles and Van Stratten's base knock that put Wimington in front 4-3.

Boscan (3-7) departed after that deciding single. He allowed four runs, three earned, on 11 hits in six and one-third innings of work. The Rocks picked up a pair of insurance runs in the eighth against Kennil Gomez. Gerard Hall's two-run single increased the lead to 6-3 and snapped the Myrtle Beach bullpen's scoreless streak at 24 and one-third innings.

Mariot (6-2) made his first solid start of the year after spending most of the year excelling out of the bullpen. The Carolina League All-Star had given up five runs in each of his first three starts, but he held the Birds to three runs, only one earned, in seven innings while scattering nine hits.

Ryan Dennick (S, 4) worked a scoreless eighth and put two men on in the ninth to bring the tying run to the plate with two away, but Prince grounded out to third to end the game. The Birds missed out on their seventh straight win, which would have been a new season high. Myrtle Beach also won six in a row in April with a road sweep in Lynchburg and a home sweep over Winston-Salem.

Garcia and Jared Bolden both singled and doubled, Bolden has tallied multiple hits in eight straight games. Zaneski had two as well as he broke a tie with his teammate Strausborger and Frederick's Miguel Abreu for the longest hit streak in the circuit in 2011. Jared Hoying also had two singles in the loss for Myrtle Beach.

The homestand concludes Thursday night as right-hander Justin Grimm (2-2, 3.42) goes for the Pelicans against Wilmington southpaw Noel Arguelles (3-4, 2.99). First pitch at BB&T Coastal Field is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

The Birds will then hit the road for a quick three-game weekend set in Frederick before returning on Monday to open a seven-game homestand against the Lynchburg Hillcats and Winston-Salem Dash. Tickets for all Pelicans home games are available at the BB&T Coastal Field box office, MyrtleBeachPelicans.com, and by phone at 843-918-6000 or 877-918-TIXX.

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Carolina League Stories from July 20, 2011


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