Mondesi, Dziedzic Stay Hot As Rocks Win Rubber Match In Lynchburg

Lynchburg, VA - For the second consecutive day, Raul A. Mondesi hit a clutch triple that led directly to a Wilmington Blue Rocks win. Mondesi stepped to the plate in the top of the third inning with one out, runners at second and third and the Blue Crew down, 1-0. He proceeded to launch a triple off of the right field fence that gave the Rocks a 2-1 lead, one they would never relinquish in a 4-2 win Thursday over the Lynchburg Hillcats. The Rocks took two out of three from the Hillcats this week and improved to 7-7 on the season.

Though it was evident early on in the ballgame that Jonathan Dziedzic did not have his best stuff, he battled through five solid innings to hold Lynchburg to just one run on five hits. Lynchburg scored their lone run off of Dziedzic in the first inning, when Kyle Wren scored from second on an infield single by Kevin Ahrens. Wren had been running with the pitch and never stopped when he saw the play developing slowly. Dziedzic (3-0, 1.69) is the first Blue Rocks starting pitcher to reach three wins this season and remains undefeated as a pro. Dziedzic now owns a 5-0 career record.

Wilmington's third inning rally began with a Cam Gallagher single to lead off the frame. After Daniel Rockett flew out to the warning track in center for the first out, Terrance Gore pulled a ball fair past the third base bag into the left field corner for a one-out double. That put runners at second and third for Mondesi. Hunter Dozier followed up Mondesi's triple by lifting a sacrifice fly to left, which plated Mondesi for Wilmington's third and final run of the frame. All three runs in the inning came off of Lynchburg starter Jarrett Miller (0-1, 3.00), who settled down to allow only those three runs over 6.2 innings pitched.

Still leading, 3-1, as they entered the top of the eighth, the Blue Crew added an insurance run off of right-handed reliever Patrick Scoggin to extend their lead to 4-1. The rally was made possible when Lynchburg botched a couple of routine defensive plays. With one out in the inning, Bubba Starling blooped a ball into left field that could have been caught but instead turned into a double. Dozier then popped out to first before Zane Evans drew a walk. A double steal put runners at second and third for Cody Stubbs, who grounded a ball softly to second base that Jose Peraza could not handle, which allowed Starling to score.

Lynchburg added one final run to their total in the bottom of the eighth inning off of lefty Kyle Bartsch. Wren led off the inning with his second single of the day and promptly stole both second and third base. Ahrens drove him in for the second time in the ballgame with a sacrifice fly to center. Wren stole four bases off of Wilmington pitching on Thursday, the most by a Blue Rocks opponent this season.

The Blue Rocks return to action Friday in Myrtle Beach as they open up a four-game set against the Pelicans. Right-hander Christian Binford (1-0, 0.00) will make his third start of the season for Wilmington, while southpaw Luis Parra (2-0, 4.09) will take the bump for the Hillcats. First pitch for the series opener is slated for 7:05 p.m., and fans can listen to the broadcast on 89.7 WGLS-FM.

PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:

As a team, the Blue Rocks have stolen 18 bases this season, which is second in the Carolina League. What really stands out, though, is that not a single Wilmington base stealer has been thrown out; the Blue Crew is a perfect 18-for-18 on the basepaths. Terrance Gore and Jack Lopez currently lead the Rocks in stolen bases with four apiece. Mondesi and Kenny Diekroeger both have three steals, tying them for second on the team, while Dozier, Starling, Evans and Tyler Chism have all contributed one stolen base each. The Hillcats currently lead the Carolina League with 20 steals.

With Dziedzic's excellent start Thursday, Wilmington has now received seven consecutive exceptional starts from its rotation. Over the past seven ballgames, the team's starting pitchers have allowed a combined five runs over 38.2 innings pitched. That is good for a 1.16 ERA. Dziedzic opened up the stretch himself by tossing six shutout innings last Friday and striking out seven. Christian Binford topped Dziedzic on Saturday and pitched seven scoreless frames while fanning 10. On Sunday, Daniel Stumpf threw 5.2 innings and allowed just one run while whiffing five. Sean Manaea delivered five shutout innings of his own Monday with five punchouts. Miguel Almonte pitched six shutout innings in game one of Wednesday's doubleheader and struck out seven while yielding just one hit. In game two, Yender Caramo tossed four innings and allowed three runs while striking out a pair.

After beating Lynchburg on Thursday, Wilmington has now won back-to-back series for the first time since last August. The Blue Rocks won their final two series of the 2013 campaign, taking two out of three from both Myrtle Beach Pelicans and the Winston-Salem Dash. The Blue Crew's 2014 schedule began with the same two opponents, but the Rocks split their opening series against the Dash and were swept by the Pelicans in their second series. Wilmington finally picked up its first series win of 2014 by taking three out of four from Winston-Salem at home before moving on to take two out of three from Lynchburg on the road. 

Catcher Zane Evans was activated off of the disabled list prior to Thursday's first pitch and went 0-for-3 at the plate in his return to the lineup. Evans also walked and stole a base in the eighth inning, which helped Wilmington score a crucial insurance run. Evans had been sidelined since April 9, when Myrtle Beach third baseman Joey Gallo accidentally struck him in the back of the head with the follow through of his swing. In a corresponding roster move, catcher Beau Maggi was transferred to Rookie-Level Idaho Falls.

THEY SAID IT:

Manager Darryl Kennedy:

"[Jonathan Dziedzic] had to work for this win, no doubt about it. That third inning, they had a lot of action going on. For him to keep them off the scoreboard there, that was huge. He didn't have his best stuff and it looked like he changed his game plan a little bit at the beginning and then settled in after that and started pitching a little better and mixing up speeds and using his off-speed [pitches]. The first couple of innings it looked like he was trying to establish the fastball a little too much and that got him out of rhythm."

"I think [Raul A. Mondesi] has pretty much been there all year for us. The biggest thing is now he's coming up with runners in scoring position. The bottom of the lineup did a good job of getting on for him and setting it up. He's pretty much been our hottest hitter all year and now he's just getting a chance to drive runners in."

"Our pitching, again, is keeping us in ballgames and giving us the chance to win. It's just a matter of time before our offense starts heating up a little bit. Hopefully we'll get to Myrtle [Beach] and the weather will be nice and our offense will start taking off."

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