Home Sweet Home: Oberholtzer Dominates in DE

WILMINGTON, DE - 109 pitches, 93 strikes. Plug and play with whatever cliché you'd like, but on Monday night at Wilmington's Daniel S. Frawley Stadium, it was just good to be home for Brett Oberholtzer.

In front of a crowd full of friends and family, the Saint Georges, Delaware native who pitched on this ballpark's diamond as a prep star at William Penn High School dominated his home state's Blue Rocks with a season-high eight and two-thirds innings of brilliant ball in a 5-3 Pelicans series-opening victory in Myrtle Beach's final regular season road series of 2010.

Oberholtzer traded zeroes on the Frawley Stadium scoreboard for the first four innings with Wilmington right-hander Tim Melville. A matchup of pitchers who each entered this year in the top 15 in Baseball America's rankings of their respective organizations' best prospects turned out as expected despite some bumps in the road for each hurler this year. Oberholtzer, two starts removed from allowing seven earned runs against the Lynchburg Hillcats, was sharp from the get-go, striking out two in his opening inning and only allowing one hit and two baserunners through his first five. Melville, who entered the game 11 losses, second-most in the Carolina League, looked poised for a dominant night as well, cruising through his first four frames only seeing one man over the minimum.

The Pelicans finally broke the night's scoreless silence with a raucous two-out moment in the fifth. After back-to-back outs followed a pair of leadoff singles by Cody Johnson and Jordan Kreke, outfielder Luis Sumoza stroked a ball to the wall over the head of shallow-stationed center fielder Patrick Norris. Each runner chugged around to score, and as Sumoza streaked into third with a slide, Wilmington shortstop Christian Colon rifled his relay throw high, sending it one-hopping off the roof of the Pelicans dugout for a dead ball that plated Sumoza. The Little League home run handed the Pelicans a 3-0 lead with Sumoza crossing unearned.

Defense played a role in Wilmington's response inning in the sixth, and Colon was again involved. With one out and Patrick Norris aboard, Colon skied a fly to left-center where Johnson, cruising into the alley, seemed to be under it, but at the last second, the ball kicked off his mitt and rolled to the fence. Norris raced around to score, and Colon, who reached third on the error, crossed home one batter later on a Wil Myers base hit to cut the Pelicans lead to 3-2.

With the night getting more tense, however, a resurgent Matt Kennelly stole the show for Myrtle Beach at the plate in the game's latter third. The Pelicans catcher continued a scorching hot month with his third home run in two games, a solo shot to lead off the seventh in the last inning of work for Melville, and distanced the Birds' lead with a two-out RBI single in the ninth to score Mike Jones and provide a much-needed insurance run. Melville (2-12) departed after seven innings having allowed four Pelicans tallies, three earned, on six hits. He struck out five without a walk while moving into an unfortunate tie for the most losses in the league.

Oberholtzer, however, was the story. The lefty surpassed his previous season-long for a start when he retired Adrian Ortiz on the first pitch of the eighth inning, and he didn't look back from there. Less than 30 minutes from his hometown, the southpaw took the ball in the ninth looking to polish off the Pelicans' first nine-inning complete game this season. When Ernesto Mejia doubled to open the inning and Rey Navarro did the same following back-to-back strikeouts to reduce the Pelicans' advantage to 5-3, however, a tiring Oberholtzer departed, handing the ball to his bullpen. Chad Rodgers didn't disappoint. Following a wild pitch that sent Navarro to third and a two-out walk to Adam Frost, Rodgers (S, 2) got Norris to loft an innocent fly ball to right fielder Sumoza to end the affair and snap a four-game Pelicans losing streak.

Oberholtzer (5-6) exited one out shy of the complete game having allowed three runs, but just one earned, on seven hits over eight and two-thirds innings of work. He struck out nine, his second-most this season, and did not walk a man.

Myrtle Beach will go for at least a series split in game two of this four-game set tomorrow night at Frawley Stadium as the Birds look to stay in the hunt in the Carolina League Southern Division playoff race's final week. Right-hander Cory Rasmus (0-2, 2.90) seeks his first win in Tuesday evening's affair against Wilmington righty Bryan Paukovits (3-5, 5.40) with first pitch scheduled for 6:35.