CarL1 Wilmington Blue Rocks

Two-Out Hits Propel Rocks to First Win of Season

Published on April 10, 2015 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


MYRTLE BEACH, SC - A breakout night for the offense coupled with a strong start from Cody Reed led the Wilmington Blue Rocks to their first win of the 2015 season, an 8-3 final on Friday night in Myrtle Beach. The Blue Rocks move even at 1-1 on the season with the win, after a 9-1 loss at the hands of the Pelicans on Thursday night.

Southpaw Cody Reed took the ball for Wilmington on Friday, looking to rebound from a season in 2014 where he struggled, going 3-9 with a 5.46 ERA in 19 starts for Low-A Lexington. Reed got through the first three frames without allowing a hit, the only base runner for Myrtle Beach being first baseman Jacob Rogers who walked to start off the second, but was erased on a 5-4-3 double play off the bat of Ben Carhart to end the frame. Reed ended up going five innings allowing five hits, two walks, and a run while compiling four strikeouts.

Zane Evans got the scoring started for Wilmington in the top of the second inning when he stepped up with the bases empty and one out. Starter Daury Torrez got ahead of Evans 1-2 but made a mistake that Evans deposited over the left field wall. For Evans, it's his first homerun of the season. He hit five long balls last season for Wilmington, all coming in the second half.

The Rocks would extend their lead in the top of the fourth thanks to a big two-out rally started by Ramon Torres' second hit of the night, a seeing-eye single back up the box. Jack Lopez then delivered a line drive single to center, his first hit of the season. That left it to the 13th ranked prospect in the Royals organization according to Baseball America, Bubba Starling, who would continue his hot start with a three-run homer just over the leaping try of left-fielder Frank Zagunis. Starling went 2-for-4 last night with two doubles in the season opener. For Starling, those are his first three RBIs of 2015, he knocked in 54 runs for the Blue Rocks last season.

The Pelicans looked poised to cut into the Rocks lead in the bottom of the sixth, after getting on the board with a Daniel Lockhart sacrifice fly in fifth. They would load the bases with three consecutive singles to start the frame. Reliever Luke Farrell, who replaced Reed after the first two hits of the inning, got Jeimer Candelario to line out to Frank Schwindel at first. Schwindel would throw to second and double-up Billy McKinney, who froze off the bag on the humpback liner.

Cody Reed earns his first win of the season, working 5+ innings, allowing only one run. Luke Farrell, who is projected to piggyback Reed's starts for the foreseeable future, earned the save throwing the last four innings. Farrell would give up two runs in the ninth, but he would strike out Zagunis looking to end matters. Myrtle Beach starter Daury Torrez takes the loss, he gave up six earned runs in 4.2 innings pitched.

The Blue Rocks and Pelicans square off again tomorrow night in Myrtle Beach as both teams look to improve their records over the .500 mark. The Rocks will send Alec Mills to the hill. Mills went 2-1 with a 1.18 ERA in seven starts for Low-A Lexington last season. The Rocks offense will face Paul Blackburn who spent all of 2014 with Low-A Kane County where he went 9-4 with a 3.23 ERA. First pitch from Myrtle Beach is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:

The Blue Rocks continue to excel when it comes to extra-base hits, a statistic the team struggled with in 2014. With three more extra-base hits tonight, the Rocks now have six total extra-base hits, two of those being home runs. In 2014, the Rocks totaled just 308 extra-base hits. With six in the first two games, they are on pace for 420 in 2015.

Zane Evans found his power stroke much earlier in 2015. With his second inning solo homer, it took Evans just five at-bats to hit his first homerun of the campaign. Last season, it took Evans 73 games to reach the same total, his first long ball of 2014 also coming at Myrtle Beach's Ticketreturn.com Field. The show of power from Evans may be a carryover from last season, when Evans hit five homeruns in the second half of the season compared to none in the first.

With his three-run homerun tonight, Bubba Starling stays hot in the second game of the season after going 2-for-4 with two doubles in the season opener. Starling, now batting .375 (3-for-8), has three extra-base hits in the first two contests of the season and three RBIs. Starling is looking to keep his hot start going, especially considering he batted just .184 (45-for-244) in the first half of 2014 compared to his much better second half, where the center fielder batted .252 (60-for-238).

Wilmington has seen some clutch performances from the offense this young season. Tonight, the Blue Rocks went 6-for-15 with two outs including the Starling homerun and the Logan Moon double, accounting for five RBIs. Through the first two games of the season, Wilmington is 12-for-31 with two outs. Those twelve hits include a homerun, three doubles, and six RBIs.

THEY SAID IT

Manager Brian Buchanan

"Tonight was nice. We had five two-out RBIs, which is a heart breaker for the other team. They just have to stick with the approach. Just because there is two outs, it doesn't mean we're out of the inning. Bubba [Starling] with that homerun and Logan [Moon] with that double; they swung the bats well tonight."

"[Cody] Reed went out there and pitched really well for us. He gave us five solid innings and then Luke [Farrell] came in there in the sixth and shut it down. It was, overall, a very good game for us. We swung the bats well, we pitched well, we played solid defense; that's what you want."

"You're never out of a game, especially at this level. You never know, a bad hop here, a bad pitch there and we end up getting a rally. That's what they did tonight with two outs. They kept battling and battling and end up putting some runs on the board with two outs."

"[Piggybacking starters] helps us out later in the year. We've got plenty of pitching now because it's only the second game of the season, but later on in the year when you're short and some arms are tired, having those two piggybacks gives the bullpen an extra day or two to rest."

Designated Hitter Zane Evans

"We've got a lot of guys coming back this year and we're all just relaxed. We know we've got a lot of stuff to work on. The numbers showed last year that we weren't ready to go up. We're ready to make a change. I think we've got a really great group of guys this year. It's a lot of fun out here, we have a really good time in the locker room and once it's game time we're ready to play. The focus during game time is great."

"I remember last year in about the 30th game I had a homerun but it was called foul and that killed me a little bit. It definitely feels good. Last year I started struggling and then started trying to hit homeruns and I knew that [I was not] going to hit them. It definitely feels good to have the first one out of the way."

"We're not going to give up, that's the mentality of this team. [In Spring Training] we really worked on battling with two strikes and two outs, just putting the ball in play. That's what we've been doing so far so it's good to see."

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Carolina League Stories from April 10, 2015


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