CarL1 Wilmington Blue Rocks

Rocks Take Second Straight From Hillcats, Vault Into Playoff Position

Published on July 21, 2008 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


Lynchburg, VA - The Wilmington Blue Rocks (50-50, 15-15) scored six times over the first three innings en route to a 8-6 victory over the Lynchburg Hillcats on Monday night at City Stadium. Brad Correll extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a 4-for-5 night, including his fifth homer of the season, and Cody Strait had three hits to power a 15-hit Wilmington attack. All-Star Everett Teaford tossed six innings for the victory and Tyler Chambliss logged his 17th save, as the Rocks leapt a half-game ahead of the Hillcats for second place in the Carolina League's Northern Division second-half chase.

Wilmington plated runs in each of the final four innings on Sunday en route to nine unanswered scores in a rout of Lynchburg in the series opener. On Monday night, the Rocks continued that momentum and harassed 22-year-old southpaw Daniel Moskos for three first-inning tallies. Consecutive doubles by Derrick Robinson and Chris McConnell began the frame and gave the Rocks a 1-0 edge. Following a Correll groundout, Strait delivered an RBI knock up the middle and moved to third on the throw to the plate plus an error on center fielder James Barksdale. Kurt Mertins capped off the scoring in the first with a single to center.

The Blue Rocks continued their assault on Moskos (7-7) in the second inning. Jeff Howell doubled and Jarrod Dyson singled to begin the frame, while a McConnell sac fly and a Correll opposite-field knock produced a pair of runs for a 5-0 Wilmington bulge.

After the Hillcats got a run against Teaford in the bottom of the second, Josh Johnson knocked home Mertins in the third via a one-out single, completing a seven-inning span dating back to Sunday's sixth inning that saw the Rocks collect 15 runs on 20 base hits.

Teaford (6-3), who suffered a loss to Lynchburg last Tuesday at Frawley Stadium, allowed a Kent Sakamoto solo homer with two outs in the sixth and then a Kris Watts RBI single later in the frame . But, the Georgia Southern product would allow just three runs on eight base hits and depart after the sixth with a 6-3 lead at his back.

The Blue Rocks went to work on some insurance in the top of the seventh, as Correll cracked a leadoff double and came home on a two-out passed ball. The run would loom large, as the Hillcats answered with a pair of runs against Aaron Hartsock in the bottom half of the seventh. Jim Negrych, the league's leading batter, plated a run with an two-out single to right to cut the Rocks' lead to 7-4. Two batters later, Mertins bobbled a Sakamoto grounder to second, allowing Negrych to score from third and draw Lynchburg to within two.

After a scoreless eighth, the Blue Rocks got another huge lift from Correll, who was earlier in the day named the Carolina League's Player of the Week. The former Hillcat, who crushed a pair of homers, including a grand slam, the night before, blasted a leadoff shot over the left-center field fence to re-establish a three-run lead for Wilmington. Over his 12-game hitting streak, Correll is hitting .478 (22-46) with five home runs and 12 RBIs.

Southpaw Ben Swaggerty, who tossed a scoreless eighth, began the ninth with three left-handed batters due up. But, Swaggerty allowed the leadoff man to reach on his own fielding error and then walked Eddie Prasch thereafter. Rocks manager Darryl Kennedy went to the bullpen for his All-Star closer, Chambliss, who yielded a base hit to Negrych to load the bases. The former Florida State Seminole rebounded, however, and induced slugger Jamie Romak, the league's home run leader, into a 6-4-3 double play that plated a run. Chambliss put a bow on the game when he got Sakamoto to roll a grounder to second that Mertins handled for a the out.

With wins in the first two games of the four-game set, the Blue Rocks send righty Ed Cegarra (3-4, 4.43) to the mound to oppose Lynchburg right-hander Michael Crotta (7-7, 4.99) in Tuesday's 7:05 p.m. affair. The 19-year-old Cegarra was named the league's Pitcher of the Week on Monday.

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Carolina League Stories from July 21, 2008


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