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CarL1 Wilmington Blue Rocks

Wild Ninth Leads Rocks to Win

May 22, 2018 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


Woodbridge, VA - The Wilmington Blue Rocks were down to their final out in the ballgame before they rallied in the top of the ninth inning and stunned the Potomac Nationals 7-4 Tuesday night at Northwest Federal Field. The victory snapped a four-game losing streak and gives the Rocks their first win on their seven-game road trip. Gabriel Cancel and Nick Heath each paced the offense with three hits.

In the top of the ninth, Heath drew a one-out walk, D.J. Burt and Khalil Lee each singled to load the bases. After a strikeout, Kort Peterson showed patience at the plate and drew a bases loaded walk to tie the game before Chris DeVito was hit by a pitch to put the Rocks out in front, 5-4. With Cancel batting, Potomac's reliever James Bourque uncorked a wild pitch to allowed Lee to score to make it 6-4. Cancel then followed with his third hit of the game, on an infield single, to score Peterson to give the game its final score, 7-4.

With Potomac trailing 2-0 entering the fourth inning, the P-Nats got things started with a full-count walk worked by Tres Barrera. After Anthony Bender got the first out on a pop up, Jack Sundberg and David Masters each singled to load the bases. Then Edwin Lora lifted a sacrifice fly that carried deep enough into right-center that each runner moved up a bag. The advancements allowed Blake Perkins' single to plate a pair and give Potomac a 3-2 lead. Carter Keiboom capped off the frame with an RBI-knock to right to make it 4-2. Peterson brought the Rocks within a run in the sixth inning with an RBI single to make it 4-3.

Potomac's rally muted the early momentum provided by Cancel in the second inning. Peterson worked a one-out walk and then was sacrificed into scoring position by DeVito. Cancel brought him home with a big blast that sailed easily over the left-field fence. It was the infielder's first homer since April 7.

Crowe settled in from there allowing no more damage during his five frames en route to the win. In his first start since May 11 the righty fanned three and yielded just four hits. Outside of the fourth Bender shined on the mound for Wilmington. The right-hander posted six other scoreless innings, on his way to a season-high and career-high seven-frame outing.

The Rocks will play the third game of the series at Potomac on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. Righty Ofreidy Gomez (1-3, 4.80 ERA) makes the start for Wilmington while fellow righty Joan Baez (2-2, 5.52 ERA) starts for Potomac. Fans can listen to the game as Matt Janus and Cory Nidoh will have the call on 89.7 WGLS-FM.

PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:

Right-hander Anthony Bender threw a career-high seven innings in a no-decision Tuesday night at Potomac. His previous career-high was six innings which he did five different times in his career, with the last time being on August 24, 2017 when he was with Low-A Lexington. His previous season-high with the Rocks was just 4.2 innings. It was the third time a Blue Rocks starter has last seven innings this season with Jace Vines and Gerson Garabito being the first two starting pitchers to work at least seven innings.

The Rocks put together their eighth double digit-hit game of the season Tuesday night. Nick Heath paced the offense with his third, three-hit game since rejoining the team from the disabled list on Thursday. The outfielder is hitting .556 (10-for-18) over his last five games and has his batting average up to an impressive .341 in 12 games played this season.

The stunning late-inning victory for the Rocks was the first win for the Blue Crew when trailing after the eighth inning. Entering the final frame on Tuesday, Wilmington was 0-22 when playing from behind entering the ninth inning. Wilmington's win snapped a four-game losing streak and a three-game skid against Potomac.

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