Wood Ducks Complete Another Comeback over Blue Rocks

KINSTON, NC - A tremendous start by Wes Benjamin was overshadowed in Down East's (23-23, 47-68) 7-5 come-from-behind victory over Wilmington (21-24, 60-55) on Wednesday night. Benjamin worked seven walk-free innings with seven strikeouts in a no decision.

Josh Morgan added three more hits to his hot start to August. He is now seven-for-his-last-nine and is riding a seven-game hitting streak. All nine starters reached base for the Woodies with multi-hit efforts from Matt Lipka and Carlos Garay as well.
The Blue Rocks were the ones that started hot, scoring twice in the first inning off of Benjamin. He would recover by facing the minimum over the next three frames.
In the second, the Wood Ducks responded with a three-run inning with RBIs from Yanio Perez, Elio Castillo, and Lipka. The go-ahead run from Lipka was scored with two outs; it was the first of three runs scored with two gone.
That pair came in the fourth inning when a two-out walk from LeDarious Clark sparked a rally of three straight hits with Preston Scott and Luis La O driving in runs with singles. The score was 5-2 Woodies after four.
Benjamin faced more adversity in the fifth with a single and a double to lead off the frame. He recorded a strikeout before his defense lifted him on two lineouts snagged by Garay at first and Castillo at second. At the end of his start, Benjamin had a two-strike count on 18 of 26 batters and never had a count reach three balls at any point.
Tyler Ferguson did not have the same success as Benjamin as the first four batters reached on him in the eighth. With two runs already in, the first out of the inning was a fly out to right field and he was lifted for Adam Choplick.
With a two-strike count, Chris DeVito managed a bloop single down the right field line to tie the score at 5-5. Next, Nate Esposito lifted a fly to right field where it was caught by Scott and Brandon Downes attempted to tag and score. Scott's one-hop throw beat him home and Morgan's tag was perfect to end the inning on the double play.
In the bottom of the inning, it only took three pitches for the Wood Ducks to take the lead back. Morgan led off with a single, Perez drove him in with a double, then Garay followed to bring Perez home with a single.
Choplick returned for the ninth and claimed his third win of the season. Down East earns the series win for the first time this season over Wilmington.
On Thursday, the Woodies look for their first sweep of the season with right-hander Jonathan Hernández (1-5, 4.40) on the mound. He will face Blue Rocks righty Scott Blewett (5-9, 4.11) at 7:00 p.m.
You can listen to every pitch of the 2017 season live on Sports/Talk 960 The Bull or streamed on the TuneIn Radio app.