CarL1 Wilmington Blue Rocks

Streak Stalls in Shutout Loss

Published on July 16, 2012 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


Myrtle Beach, SC - Three pitchers combined on a five-hit shutout as the Wilmington Blue Rocks (41-53, 12-12) fell to the Myrtle Beach Pelicans (51-43, 15-9) on Monday night, 2-0. The loss snapped the Blue Crew's longest win streak of the year at five, and snapped a three-game slide for the Pelicans.

Each of the Pelicans' scores came on a two-out hit. In the second, Teodoro Martinez doubled home Tomas Telis for a 1-0 lead against starter Matt Ridings. In the fifth, Hanser Alberto homered to the short porch in left for a 2-0 margin. Otherwise, Ridings (2-1) limited the damage over his six innings of work. After dealing with four baserunners over the first two innings, the right-hander retired 13 of the last 15 he faced.

His counterpart, however, was more than equal to the task. Randol Rojas (8-1) whiffed six over seven scoreless innings. The Rocks' best chance against him came in the fourth when Lane Adams singled and Brett Eibner walked with two down. Rojas quelled the threat with his third strikeout of the inning when he got Jose Bonilla swinging.

Ben Henry tossed a perfect bridge eighth and Ben Rowen notched his eighth save in as many tries when he faced the minimum in the ninth. Matt Fields went the other way for a one-out single, but was on the front end of a 6-3 double play hit into by Adams to end the game. The three Myrtle Beach hurlers combined to allow just five singles and did not allow a single Blue Rock beyond second base.

The four-game set continues on Tuesday at 7:05 p.m. Wilmington right-hander Brooks Pounders (2-2, 5.51) gets the ball against ranked prospect Luke Jackson (1-1, 4.91). Broadcast coverage begins at 6:35 p.m. as studio host Rob Cunningham brings fans the Rocks Report Pre-game Show, presented by Wawa, on 89.7 WGLS-FM and online at wgls.rowan.edu.

PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:

The Blue Rocks' struggles against Southern Division teams continued as they fell to 18-37 against those clubs. That includes an 8-20 mark when actually in a ballpark from the South. Wilmington is 23-16 overall against its brothers in the North.

Wilmington suffered its league-worst 11th shutout loss of the season.

Myrtle Beach recorded its league-best 11th shutout win. Three have come at the Blue Rocks' expense.

In 13 games against the Blue Rocks this season, Myrtle Beach's pitching staff owns a 1.01 ERA and a .181 batting average against. The Blue Rocks have been outscored 44-27 in those meetings.

In addition to 14 of the 27 runs being unearned, another reason the Pelicans' possess such a good ERA against the Blue Crew is their walk rate. Over 116 innings in the head-to-head meetings, Myrtle Beach has issued a total of 28 walks or less than 2.2 per nine innings. Wilmington walked just once on Monday night.

Matt Fields had two of the Rocks' five hits. The rest of the team went 3-for-26 (.115).

At two hours and seven minutes long, the game went three minutes longer than the Blue Rocks' shortest nine-inning game of the year, a 4-1 loss at Salem on April 26.

Chase Boruff tossed two scoreless innings of relief. He has four shutout frames under his belt since rejoining the bullpen.

Hanser Alberto's second home run of the year as a Pelican came in his 100th such at-bat.

Check out the Wilmington Blue Rocks Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Carolina League Stories from July 16, 2012


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central