Wilmington, DE- The Wilmington Blue Rocks (43-48/12-9) used a six-run first inning to kick off a wild night of offense to stomp out the Salem Red Sox (45-46/13-10) on Saturday night by a score of 16-1 at Frawley Stadium. All nine batters in Wilmington's lineup drove in a run with
Wilmington, DE- The Wilmington Blue Rocks (43-48/12-9) used a six-run first inning to kick off a wild night of offense to stomp out the Salem Red Sox (45-46/13-10) on Saturday night by a score of 16-1 at Frawley Stadium. All nine batters in Wilmington's lineup drove in a run with Gabriel Cancel leading the way with three RBI. Nick Heath also had four hits on the night. As a unit, the Rocks pounded out a season-high 20 hits.
The Blue Rocks wasted no time scoring in the bottom of the first. Blake Perkins, Heath and D.J. Burt all hit singles to load the bases with no outs for Cancel. The second baseman drove in the first run of the game by drawing a bases loaded walk to score Perkins and put the Rocks on top 1-0. Meibrys Viloria added another run with an RBI single to score Heath and double the Rocks lead 2-0. Travis Jones kept the runs going with another RBI single to bring Burt home and extend the lead to 3-0. Rudy Martin was hit by a pitch to score Cancel extending the lead to 4-0. That would be the final straw for Red Sox as they pulled starting pitcher Daniel Gonzalez before he could record an out.
Angelo Castellano poured on another run with the third RBI single of the inning to make it a 5-0 ballgame. The final run of the inning was driven in via a sacrifice fly by Vance Vizcaino that scored Jones and would have scored Martin, but he was called out at the plate trying to score from third base on a relay throw that got away from Salem's Bobby Dalbec. Wilmington kept the bats swinging well beyond the first inning. Cancel had an RBI double in the bottom of the second to make it a 7-0 game.
Salem scored its lone run on a Dalbec solo home run in the fourth to make it 7-1. Cancel ripped his second RBI double of the game in the bottom of the fourth to make it 8-1. Perkins and Heath each added RBI singles in the bottom of the fifth to extend the lead to 10-1. Viloria hit a solo shot to right field in the bottom of the sixth for his fourth homer of the season and put the Rocks out to a comfortable 11-1 lead. The Rocks scoring ended in the bottom of the eighth. Four RBI singles by Martin, Vizcaino, Heath, and Burt and an error put the game out of reach for a 16-1 final score.
Blue Rocks starter Ofreidy Gomez had a solid outing on the mound to earn his third win of the season. The right-hander pitched five full innings allowed two walks and five hits with the lone blemish being a solo home run given up in the top of the fourth.
Wilmington and Salem will play the third game of the season on Sunday, July 15 with a matinee. First pitch is scheduled for 1:35 p.m. The Blue Rocks will have righty Gerson Garbito (3-6, 4.02 ERA) on the mound while the Red Sox send fellow right-hander Kevin McAcoy (0-0, 2.19 ERA). Fans can catch all the action with Matt Janus and Cory Nidoh on the call on 89.7 WGLS-FM.
PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:
The offensive onslaught by the Rocks on Saturday was their best performance on the plate this season. The 16 runs scored by Wilmington bested the previous season-high of 15 which was set back on April 19 against the Frederick Keys at Nymeo field. All the runs in that game for the Blue Rocks were scored in the first four innings. Wilmington also set a new season-high with 20 hits in a single game. The previous high was set on July 11 when the Rocks notched 17 hits against Frederick in 12 innings of play. Saturday's game was also the 21st game where the Blue Rocks had 10 or more hits.
Gabriel Cancel continues to thrive when batting in the cleanup spot for the Blue Rocks. The infielder went 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles, drove in three runs and walked in Saturday's win. Over his last 29 games, Cancel has driven in 31 runs and added to his team lead with 51 on the season. While batting fourth this season, Cancel is hitting a robust .342 (25-for-73) with 21 RBI. When Cancel hits anywhere else in the lineup is hitting .245 (50-for-204) with 30 runs driven in.
Nick Heath extended his season-high on-base streak to 15 games thanks to a four-hit performance against Salem. Heath also drove in a pair of runs in the lopsided win. The outfielder turned in his 12th multi-hit game of the season and first, four-hit game of the year. On the season, the Rocks have had five different players pick up four this in a game with Emmanuel Rivera leading the way with two, four-hit games.
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