Wilmington Doomed by Two-Out Hits

Woodbridge, VA - The Wilmington Blue Rocks (1-1) were unable to overcome a fury of two-out, run-scoring hits by the Potomac Nationals (1-1) in a 9-2 loss Friday night at Pfitzner Stadium. The P-Nats drove in seven of their nine runs with two outs, while the Blue Rocks scored both of their runs courtesy of the long ball from Emmanuel Rivera and Khalil Lee . The Blue Rock have now homered in each of their first two games this season.

Potomac jumped out to a four-run lead after the opening inning. The Nationals strung together four consecutive two-out hits, including a trio of extra-base hits, off Blue Rock starter Jace Vines to make it an early 4-0 deficit for the Blue Crew. Wilmington got one of the runs back thanks to Rivera's solo homer in the top of the second inning and that would be the closest the Blue Rocks would get.
Potomac scored five unanswered runs from the third to the seventh inning, to push ahead 9-1. Lee clubbed a one-out solo blast in the eighth inning for his first home run of the season to make it a 9-2 ballgame. The 19-year-old outfielder finished the game with a pair of hits while catcher Xavier Fernández collected three hits in his Blue Rock debut.
The third game of the series between the two Northern Division foes will be played on Saturday, April 7 at Pfitzner Stadium. Righty Ofreidy Gomez makes his Wilmington debut while returning righty Joan Baez starts for Potomac. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. and fans can listen to the game as Matt Janus will have the call on 89.7 WGLS-FM.
PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:
The Blue Rocks have homered in the first two games of the season with Emmanuel Rivera and Khalil Lee hitting their first home runs as a Blue Rock Friday night while second baseman Gabriel Cancel hit the first homer of the season for the Blue Rocks in Thursday's 5-3 victory. Last season, Lee finished tied for second with 17 home runs in the South Atlantic League and also led the team.
Rivera continues his torrid start in the Carolina League. After leading the offense in the season opener with a pair of RBI doubles on Thursday and with his home run on Friday, the 21-year-old is now 3-for-8 with all three hits going for extra-bases. Catcher Xavier Fernández, who missed all of last season with an injury, had three hits in his Blue Rock debut. It was the first time since August 5, 2016 that the backstop collected a three-hit game.
Aside from the home runs and strong starts for individual players, the Blue Rocks have struck out 29 times through the first 18 innings of 2018. In the season opener, the Blue Rocks were able to overcome an 18 strikeout game to win 5-3 before whiffing 11 times in Friday night's loss.
www.bluerocks.com