Rocks, DeVito Cycle Through the Dash in Win

Winston-Salem, N.C. - It was a historic night for the Wilmington Blue Rocks (28-26) as Chris DeVito hit for the cycle and the Blue Crew smashed the Winston-Salem Dash (18-37) 12-6 Friday night at BB&T Ballpark. DeVito completed the cycle in grand fashion, launching a home run to go back-to-back with Brandon Downes in the sixth inning as the Rocks pounded out 17 hits in the win. DeVito became the first Blue Rock since Dee Brown to hit for the cycle when Brown achieved the feat back on April 18, 1999 at Myrtle Beach.

 

Wilmington seemed to be poised for greatness offensively starting in the opening stanza. With one out, the Blue Crew sent 13 men to the plate to explode for seven runs and chased Winston-Salem's starter Tanner Banks. Downes drove in a pair of runs while Wander Franco, Nate Esposito, Cody Jones, Nicky Lopez, and D.J. Burt all drove in a run in the inning to take a commanding 7-0 lead. The seven-run outburst marked the most runs scored by the Wilmington offense in a single inning this year.
The Dash tried to answer and scored three runs through the first four innings to make it a 7-3 contest. In the top of the sixth, the Rocks were back at it again. Downes launched his second homer of the season to make it 8-3 before DeVito smashed his third homer as a Blue Rock and 14^th overall this year to extend the lead, 9-3. In the home half of the inning, Winston-Salem scored a pair of runs on a fielder's choice and throwing error from Franco on a ground ball off the bat of Daniel Gonzalez make it a 9-5 ballgame. In the seventh inning, Johan Cruz doubled home a run in the seventh to get the Dash within striking distance, 9-6.

However, the Rocks' offense was too much for the Dash. The offensive nine hung a trio of runs on the board in the final inning, thanks to a Lopez two-run double and a Downes RBI walk to give the game the final score of 12-6. LHP Colin Rodgers earned the win and worked five innings, allowed three runs on six hits. RHP Yunior Marte earned his third save of the season and tossed 2 1/3 scoreless innings and struck out four batters.
The Rocks and Dash will play their final game against each other in the regular season on Saturday, June 3 at BB&T Ballpark with first pitch scheduled for 4:00 p.m. RHP A.J. Puckett (5-3, 3.71 ERA) gets the start for Wilmington while Winston-Salem sends RHP Zach Thompson (1-5, 5.56 ERA) to the mound. Fans can listen to the game as Matt Janus will have the call on 89.7 WGLS-FM.
PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:
With the cycle, DeVito etched his name in the Blue Rocks record book. He started his night with a single in the first inning. In the second inning, he got arguably the toughest part of the cycle out of the way, the triple. In the fourth inning he roped a double into right field before launching the solo home run in the sixth inning to complete the feat. It's the first cycle for a Blue Rocks hitter since April 18, 1999 when Dee Brown did it at Myrtle Beach. It also is the third cycle hit at BB&T Ballpark. The first was hit by Matt Lipka of Lynchburg (when they were affiliated with the Atlanta Braves) and in 2016 when Mason Robbins of the Dash completed the cycle.
Wilmington's offense put on a clinic for a second consecutive night, bashing 17 hits in Friday night's win. It comes off the heels of a 14-hit performance on Thursday night. It now mars the 20th time the team has tallied double digit hits during the season. The Blue Rocks recorded the feat 13 times in the month of May, and six times in April. However, the Rocks are only 12-8 in games they record double-digit hits. Of the 20 times the offense has recorded more than ten hits, they have scored more than ten runs only six times. In the other fifteen games, Wilmington had never scored more than seven runs.
Brandon Downes returned to the Blue Rocks active roster on Wednesday after missing the last six weeks due to a broken hammate bone, which he suffered against the Carolina Mudcats on April 11. In his return, he has not missed a beat. The outfielder has picked up a hit in each of his first three games since his return, including belting his second homer of the year on Friday night. He singled in his first at-bat on Wednesday and finished the game 1-for-3. The outfielder followed that up with a double a walk and two runs scored on Thursday.
THEY SAID IT: Christ DeVito, First Baseman
"Absolutely not, I've never done that before (on hitting for the cycle). I was just super happy to get the win and happy to contribute. (If cycle creeped in his mind after the triple) A little bit, but not much. I know (triples) are incredibly hard to get and I'm not a big triples guy. I was just happy to get it done early and didn't have to worry about it. I'm mostly happy we got the win."
"It was definitely on my mind (knowing he needed a home run to complete the cycle). I'm not going to lie. I just got a good pitch to hit, luckily it went out and I'm glad we won. It was a lot of fun. In my last at-bat, I had the bases loaded and hit a ball hard, but it didn't get through. To be honest, I can't enjoy (the cycle) as much knowing I did that in my last at-bat. It's all good, it's all fun and we have another game (Saturday).

"It's definitely taken me a couple of games to adjust. (On progress from Low-A to Adv. A) At the end of the day it's baseball. The guys in the clubhouse have helped me out tremendously because obviously it's a lot different. I've been listening to them, they have helped me out a lot, especially the veteran guys."
"We like to say one game at a time (on importance of winning series). You can't win a half in one game. You have to take it one game at a time, hope to pile the wins up and hopefully we can take the first half."

Brandon Downes, Outfielder
"It's definitely a learning process for me (on coming back from hamate injury). I've had injuries before. I had a right wrist injury in college and I tried to play through that and it was a big problem for me. This happened, I obviously couldn't play through it. I took advantage of hit and hit the weight room. I did a lot of running, kept my weight up and got stronger. I tried to work on my approach a little more, but I felt great coming into the season and I'm just trying to get back to where I was."
"A little bit (On being nervous it would take a long time to get swing back). I just found something before the season started, it felt so good and usually when I go on a long break, I forget one thing. I didn't forget it this time and I was hitting two weeks after surgery. I had time to work on it and I'm getting right back to where I was."
"It felt really good (on home run). The at-bat before that, I had a really bad at-bat, swung at a ball in the dirt and I wanted another chance against that guy again. (Jamie) Quirk said I let things get too fast so I tried to slow things down that at-bat. I saw the first pitch well and then got the barrel out and just got enough to get it out. It felt great."
"Definitely, that's the biggest thing for me is laying off those tough pitches I was swinging at last year (on good approach in final at-bat.) You take it a little personal when they walk someone to get to you. So I put a little more effort in that at-bat and wanted to do something productive. Even though it was a walk, it was a great at-bat for me and it was a good team win."
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