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CarL1 Wilmington Blue Rocks

Third Loss In Four Games Slims Division Lead To 3.0 Games

May 6, 2011 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


Wilmington, DE - Two-out RBIs accounted for all but one of the scores as the Frederick Keys (13-13) bested the Wilmington Blue Rocks (16-10) at Harry Grove Stadium on Thursday night, 5-2. The series opener between the top two teams in the CL North saw Wilmington trail by five before Nick Francis' two-out, two-run double in the eighth. Alas, that was all as the Blue Crew could muster as it lost for the first time with Noel Arguelles (1-1) on the bump. The Cuban defector allowed just five hits, but four runs over a career-long six innings to suffer his first stateside setback.

Bobby Stevens tagged Arguelles with a leadoff double in the first inning. Two outs later, Delaware native Tyler Townsend's first-pitch single to left-center put Frederick on the board for a 1-0 score. A similar formula saw Brian Ward ignite the third inning with a single. After a couple of groundouts, Buck Britton singled to right for a 2-0 deficit.

With two outs in the sixth, the Keys' top-ranked prospect, L.J. Hoes, made little effort to evade a slow breaking ball that grazed his foot. Townsend made that bruise matter when he followed with a homer to right-center, his team-leading fifth of the year.

Piggyback reliever Michael Mariot gave up a solo homer to Jacob Julius in the seventh for a 5-0 hole. He allowed only one other hit and struck out two over his two innings of work.

The Blue Rocks could not solve surprise starter Tim Bascom (1-0). Just called down from Double-A earlier in the day, Bascom struck out seven men over six scoreless innings. The originally scheduled starter, Jacob Rasner, appeared in relief for the first time this season. After a scoreless seventh, he allowed the Blue Rocks' lone scores in the eighth. Whit Merrifield drew a one-out walk and two batters later, Rey Navarro followed with a single to right-center.

Francis then sent a falling-fast liner down the right-field chalk. Stevens dove at the ball and seemed to make a snow-cone squeeze right near the foul line. The ball squirted loose as home plate umpire Aaron Roberts deemed the ball fair. Consequently, two runs scored and Francis collected his team-leading eighth double. Frederick skipper Orlando Gomez argued the ball was foul, but the ruling stood. Rasner settled, inducing a pop out to shortstop from John Whittleman to end the inning.

In the ninth, Sean Gleason struck out all three men he faced to log his fifth save in as many tries.

The four-game set continues on Friday night at 7 p.m. Right-hander Elisaul Pimentel (2-0, 5.91) gets the ball for the Blue Rocks against a man with a Carolina League no-hitter on his resume, southpaw Nathan Moreau (2-2, 3.98). Broadcast coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. as studio host Adam Dobrowolski brings fans the Rocks Report Pre-game Show, presented by Wawa, on 89.7 WGLS-FM and online at wgls.rowan.edu.

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Carolina League Stories from May 6, 2011


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