Big Fourth Inning Leads Rocks Past Red Sox

Wilmington, DE - A four-run outburst in the fourth inning propelled the Wilmington Blue Rocks (52-50/21-11) to an 8-4 win over the Salem Red Sox (48-53 / 16-17) Wednesday afternoon at Frawley Stadium. Rudy Martin pushed the Rocks out in front with a bases-clearing double in the big fourth inning while Travis Jones belted his first-career Advanced-A home run in the sixth to help lead the Blue Rocks offensively. The win matches Wilmington's season-high winning streak at six games.
 

Salem jumped to an early 2-0 lead when Bobby Dalbec hit a two-run home run over the center field wall in the first inning against Rocks' starter Carter Hope . Hope settled in afterwards and kept Salem off the board for the next three innings. Wilmington's offense got to work in the fourth after it was stymied by Salem's starter Daniel Gonzalez through the first three innings.
The Blue Rocks sent nine men to the plate in the fourth inning and it started with a leadoff walk by Blake Perkins. After a strikeout and groundout, the Rocks were able to rally and drew three straight walks, including a bases loaded walk by Brewer Hicklen to put the Blue Crew on the board, 2-1. A pitch later, Martin ripped a bases-clearing double to right field to push the Rocks out in front 4-2. In the sixth, Jones smashed his first homer as a Blue Rock over the left field wall to pad the Wilmington lead, 5-2. Salem inched closer in the seventh and scored a pair of runs on RBI singles from Brett Netzer and C.J. Chatham to pull within a run, 5-4.
Wilmington widened the gap with three runs in the eighth inning with two outs. Hicklen started the inning with a single and stole both second and third base. With two outs, Vance Vizcaino slashed a single to left field to plate Hicklen to put the Rocks back up by two, 6-4. Two batters later, D.J. Burt bounced a single up the middle to score a pair of runs to give Wilmington a comfortable 8-4 lead heading into the ninth. Julio Pinto came in and allowed a hit and walk before closing out the game to help earn the Rocks their sixth consecutive win.
The Blue Rocks go for the series sweep on Thursday, July 26 at Frawley Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. as righty Ofreidy Gomez (3-8, 3.95 ERA) makes the start for Wilmington while fellow right-hander Bryan Mata (6-2, 3.42 ERA) starts for Salem. Fans can listen to the game as Matt Janus and Cory Nidoh will have the call on 89.7 WGLS-FM.
PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:
The Rocks posted their 26^th come-from-behind victory of the season after erasing a 2-0 deficit in the fourth inning with a four-run inning. It marked the second straight come-from-behind win for the Rocks in the series. With the win, the Blue Rocks pushed their win streak to a season-high six games, tying the team's season-high which was from June 2 through June 7. The Blue Rocks have also won 10 of their last 12 games and 13 of their last 16 and have won three straight series.
The Blue Rocks stole five bases in a single game for the sixth time this season after Blake Perkins and Brewer Hicklen each stole two bases while Rudy Martin stole a base. Perkins pushed his season total to 22 which is top-five in the Carolina League while Hicklen picked up his first stolen bases of the season. Martin has stolen 17 bags in 44 games. The Rocks have now swiped 52 bases through the first 32 games of the second half and have 129 on the season, bypassing last year's total of 111.
Rudy Martin paced the offense with three runs driven in and also had two hits in the game. It was Martin's fifth multi-RBI game of the season and his first contest in which he drove in three runs while he now has five multi-hit efforts on the campaign. Martin has driven in four runs through the first two games of the series and also threw out a Salem baserunner at the plate in the first game of the three-game set.
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