SEASON IN REVIEW
April: The season's first month saw the Blue Crew stagger out of the gate. Wilmington played up-and-down baseball as it finished April with a 10-11 record, three games behind the first-place Lynchburg Hillcats. Three players were not bothered by the early-season cold weather, as they raced out of the gate red-hot. Clint Robinson led the way, batting a team-high .356 with three home runs and 13 runs batted in during April. His torrid stretch began right from the very first game, as he opened the season with hits in each of the first eight contests. Jeff Bianchi and David Lough also had big months. Lough hit .338, roped six doubles, and tied for the team lead with 15 RBIs. On April 11, Lough hit the first Blue Rocks home run of the season as he knocked in four runs during an 11-9 win over the Myrtle Beach Pelicans. Bianchi batted .324 and boasted an on-base percentage of .415. The shortstop was part of the month's most memorable finish on April 19 at Frawley Stadium. After Wilmington let a ninth-inning lead slip away, the game went to extras. Bianchi, who had been given the afternoon off, got his first at-bat of the day in the 10th and reached base. He was at third when Anthony Seratelli stepped to the plate and laid down a perfect squeeze bunt. Bianchi raced home in front of the throw for the walk-off win. As exciting as that finish was, it still did not compare to the cool, crisp night in Kinston when Johnny Giavotella single-handedly carried the Rocks to a victory. The second baseman equaled a franchise record, driving in seven runs during Wilmington's win over the K-Tribe. Giavotella smacked two home runs that night, including a grand slam. He would finish the month with a team-best 17 runs scored, and tied for the Carolina League lead with three triples.
May: The campaign's second month saw the Lynchburg Hillcats pull away from the Rocks in the race for a first-half Carolina League North crown. Wilmington went 15-13 in May, finishing the month three games over .500 overall, but seven games behind the Hillkitties. Despite the struggles in the standings, Wilmington provided plenty of awe-inspiring moments. The starting staff was superb, as two young left-handers led the way. Danny Duffy and Everett Teaford went a combined 6-1 over 11 starts in May. Teaford, who was in the midst of his second season on the Riverfront, proved just about unhittable. The Alpharetta, GA native was a perfect 3-0 with a measly 1.47 earned run average. In 30.2 innings pitched, he struck out 21 and walked only six. On May 26, Teaford was named the Carolina League's Pitcher of the Week award. Duffy, meanwhile, was no slouch himself. The youngest pitcher on Wilmington's Opening Day roster went 3-1 in May with a 2.10 ERA. Offensively, Mike Moustakas shined bright, establishing a team-best 12-game hitting streak from May 8-22. Kansas City's top prospect finished the month with three home runs and a team-high 20 RBIs.
June: During the season's third month the Wilmington roster went through a transition. On to Double-A went Bianchi, Lough, Teaford, and the team's closer Aaron Hartsock. The veterans who began the year in Wilmington would eventually give way to a bunch of young pups that would rally around each other, and eventually put together one of the most memorable regular-season rides in Blue Rocks history. But until the reinforcements arrived, Wilmington continued to rely on its pitching staff. That staff made history during a four-game stretch from June 7-11. Wilmington recorded four consecutive shutout victories, and did not allow its opponents to score a run for 38 consecutive innings. Both accomplishments were good for franchise records. Two of its starters in fact were so good, they were named to the Carolina League All-Star team on June 7. Duffy and Teaford received the accolades, along with offensive stalwarts Moustakas and Lough. Teaford would miss out on his trip to California thanks to his promotion, but the other three journeyed out west for the June 23 exhibition with the California League All-Stars. Moustakas and Lough each recorded hits, while Duffy tossed a scoreless frame, but it was not enough, as the Carolina League fell, 2-1. The Blue Crew was mathematically eliminated from first-half contention on June 17. Two days later, the Blue Rocks suffered another indignity as they were no-hit in a seven-inning game by Winston-Salem's Levi Maxwell. Wilmington went 16-10 in June, and set its sights on bigger and better things in the season's second half.
July: Duffy's phenomenal season reached its peak in July, as the left-hander became the first-ever active Wilmington Blue Rock to appear in the 11th annual XM All-Star Future's Game on July 12. Duffy entered the game in the fifth frame. He allowed two men to reach, one on a walk and the other on a single, but also managed to retire two batters before giving way to Arizona farmhand Jarrod Parker. Duffy would also be named the Carolina League's Pitcher of the Week on July 21. Elsewhere, the Wilmington roster received critical infusions of young talent, and began to take the shape of the team that would dominate the season's final month. Eric Hosmer, Nick Van Stratten, Danny Gutierrez, Michael Montgomery and Zach Peterson all made their Wilmington debuts in July, and all would play critical roles in the Rocks capturing another postseason berth. While the Rocks' lost another closer to Double-A in Juan Abreu, that departure blessed Brandon Sisk with solo end-game duties. He would go on to star for the squad, not blowing a single save try from then forward en route to team Pitcher of the Year honors. For the second consecutive month, Wilmington finished six games above .500. It proved the most modest of a precursor compared to what would arrive around the corner.
August: The Wilmington Blue Rocks were a dominant baseball team in the month of August. The Blue Crew went 21-9, and won games in seemingly every way imaginable. On Aug. 1, Derrick Robinson set the tone for one of the more unlikely power surges the Blue Rocks have seen. The center fielder's two-run homer capped off a five-run fifth inning which led Wilmington to an 8-3 victory over the Salem Red Sox. The round-tripper ended Robinson's 221-game, 895-at-bat homerless streak as a Blue Rock, and it set the tone for the entire month. The very next night Robinson went deep again, as the Rocks tied a franchise record with five home runs as a team in an 11-3 rout of Winston-Salem. Wilmington just kept winning, and on Aug. 7, the Rocks' 8-1 victory over the Potomac Nationals established another franchise record, this time with a 12-game winning streak. Although Wilmington's streak ended one night later, the Rocks wasted little time assembling a new streak, as they took a critical Sunday afternoon contest from the P-Nats thanks to a late rally. Wilmington scored six unanswered runs, including three in the eighth, as it took a 6-4 decision to take sole possession of first place in the CL North. However, one week later, Wilmington would let first place slip through its fingers. The Potomac Nationals came into Frawley Stadium and took four straight games from the Blue Crew, moving a half-game ahead of Wilmington in the standings. Two days later though, the Rocks swept a doubleheader from the Frederick Keys and regained sole possession of first place from the P-Nats. It would be a position Wilmington would not relinquish for the rest of the season. The Rocks got excellent pitching performances in the month from Montgomery, Gutierrez, Eduardo Paulino and Alex Caldera. Montgomery and Caldera were each named CL Pitcher of the Week, while Gutierrez had an ERA of just 1.85 in six starts, and Paulino was named Wilmington's Pitcher of the Month thanks to a 5-0 mark. Offensively, Robinson ended the month with a team-best five home runs. He also broke his own franchise record for most stolen bases in a season during a three-steal night on Aug. 19. He finished the year with 69 thefts. Robinson would be the only Rock named to the postseason Carolina League All-Star team. Moustakas also had a big month, driving in 23, and batting .280.
September: Wilmington began the month in style, winning two straight to move the magic number down to one, which set up an opportunity to clinch a postseason berth at home on Sept. 4 against the Frederick Keys. The Blue Crew got seven innings of two-run ball from Paulino, and two RBIs each from Jamar Walton and Chase Fontaine as it took a 5-2 decision from the Keys. Afterward, manager Brian Rupp's team celebrated in the clubhouse, and immediately turned its sights towards the playoffs. The Carolina League Northern Division Championship Series began in Lynchburg on Sept. 9. Paulino (1-0) was brilliant in Game One, allowing only a single score on four hits in 6.1 sterling frames to grab his eighth straight winning decision over a stretch of nine starts. It was Wilmington's first playoff victory since 2006. The Rocks dropped Game Two, 1-0, sending the best-of-five series back to Wilmington even at 1-1. The Blue Rocks seemed to seize control of the set one night later, as they took what may have been the most exciting postseason game in team history on a walk-off homer in 12 innings, 2-0. Game Three was delayed 46 minutes at the outset due to wet weather, and it was played through a constant dreary mist in bitterly cold temperatures. But after gunning down two men at the plate, and pitching out of a bases-loaded, nobody-out jam to preserve the shutout, Wilmington's spirits were warmed in the home 12th. After Clint Robinson opened the inning with a single, Hosmer blasted a home run deep into the right-field night sky for a walk-off win. Unfortunately for the Blue Rocks, it would be their last victory of 2009. Lynchburg would take Game Four at Frawley, 5-2, and then would win a decisive Game Five in Virginia, also by a 5-2 decision. The Hillcats would go on to prove their upset was no fluke, sweeping away Salem in the finals to take their first Carolina League crown since 2002. The Blue Rocks have dropped the N.D.C.S. to the eventual league champion in each of the last three seasons.
bluerocks.com