Blue Rocks Comeback Effort Falls Short

Wilmington, DE- The Wilmington Blue Rocks (60-61/29-22) battled back in a valiant effort, but ultimately came up short against the Lynchburg Hillcats (61-58/32-20) by a score of 6-4 on Thursday night at Frawley Stadium. Blake Perkins went 2-for-3 on the night including a solo shot in the sixth inning for his third homerun of the season. The Blue Rocks are now 2 ½ games out of first place in the Northern Divison.
 

The Hillcats took a commanding lead in the top of the fifth. After a leadoff double by Tyler Friis, Anthony Miller slugged a deep ball over the fence in right for his fifth homer of the season to put Lynchburg on top 2-0. Later in the inning, Mitch Longo doubled to right to bring Gianpaul Gonzalez home to make it a 3-0 ballgame. Trenton Brooks roped a single down the line in right to score Longo and put Lynchburg ahead 4-0. After a Nolan Jones walk, Austen Wade hit a grounder that kicked off the ankle of Blue Rock's first baseman Travis Jones , Wade reached first on the error while Brooks scored to put the game out of reach 5-0.
Wilmington began the comeback effort in the bottom of the sixth. Perkins smacked a line drive down the left field line that was hit just hard enough to go over the fence for a solo home run as the Blue Rocks got on the board, 5-1. The Blue Rocks brought themselves back in the bottom of the seventh. After a single by Emmanuel Rivera , Meibrys Viloria hit a double into the gap in right to put runners on second and third with no outs. Jones grounded a single up the middle to score Rivera and make it a 5-2 game. Later in the inning, Tanner Tully threw a wild pitch, Jones moved to second while Viloria scored to bring Wilmington closer, 5-3.
Lynchburg earned another insurance run in the top of the eighth. With the bases loaded, Dillon Persinger hit a sacrifice fly deep into center to drive in another run to keep the Hillcats ahead 6-3. Lynchburg loaded the bases again later in the inning, but Bryan Brickhouse induced an inning-ending double play.
Wilmington answered in the bottom of the eighth. With Perkins on third, Rivera drew a four-pitch walk to put runners on the corners with two outs. Viloria followed up with a single to score Perkins. Viloria was caught at second trying to stretch the hit to a double while the run scored to keep the game close at 6-4.
The Blue Rocks will travel down to BB&T Ballpark in Winston-Salem, North Carolina to start a four-game series against the Dash with first pitch scheduled for 7:00 p.m. Wilmington will have right-hander Andres Sotillet (2-3, 5.64 ERA) on the mound. Winston-Salem will send fellow righty Alec Hansen (0-0, 0.00 ERA) to oppose him. Fans can catch all the action with Jack Keffer on the call on 89.7 WGLS-FM.   
PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE
The Wilmington Blue Rocks had a scoreless streak of 24.2 innings stretch all the way into the bottom of the sixth in Thursday night's game. Blake Perkins finally broke the slump when he ripped a solo home run down the left field line to get Wilmington on the board 5-1. The center fielder hit his third homer of the season and his second as a Blue Rock. The last time Perkins went deep was on July 11 in Frederick where he hit a two-run shot off Zac Lowther to double the Rocks' lead to 4-0 in the eventual 12-11 win.
With the loss on Thursday night, Wilmington has now entered a four-game losing streak for the first time in the second half of the season. The Rocks also have an under .500 record for the first time since July 23 when the team had a 49-50 record overall. The last time the Blue Rocks lost four in a row was in a stretch from May 29 to June 1, matching a season high losing streak. The last time Wilmington had a losing streak over four games was last season where the Rocks dropped the last seven games of the 2017 campaign.