Ninth Inning Rally Falls Short Against Pelicans

Myrtle Beach, S.C. - A ninth inning rally fell just short as the Wilmington Blue Rocks (59-57 / 28-18) scored a run in the ninth and loaded the bases before the rally and game came to an end as the Rocks fell by the score of 6-5 to the Myrtle Beach Pelicans (51-65 / 17-29) Friday night at TicketReturn.com Field. Meibrys Viloria turned in a big night at the plate and drove in four runs with a two-run homer and two-run double to pace the offense.
 

The ninth inning rally started with one out with Wilmington down 6-4.  Brewer Hickeln lined his first-career Advanced-A home run over the left field wall to pull the Rocks within a run, 6-5. Vance Vizcaino and Angelo Castellano each singled to put the tying and go-ahead runs on base. With Rudy Martin batting, a wild pitch from Pelicans' closer Tyler Peyton advanced the runners into scoring position. Martin drew a walk to load the bases before D.J. Burt struck out and Gabriel Cancel grounded out to first on a check swing to end the rally and game.
Wilmington jumped out early in the second inning against Pelicans' starter Cory Abbot. Emmanuel Rivera led the inning off with a single before Viloria crushed his sixth homer of the season over the right field wall to put the Blue Rocks ahead, 2-0. However, in the bottom of the third inning, Myrtle Beach flexed its muscle and smacked three homers in the frame, including back-to-back home runs from Jared Young, who hit a three-run homer and Andruw Monasterio who followed with a solo shot to put the Pelicans up, 5-2.
In the sixth, it was Viloria again to provide the offense. Burt started the inning with a walk before Cancel singled to put runners at first and second. After Rivera struck out for the first out, Viloria ripped a double into right-center field to score both Burt and Cancel to pull the Rocks within a run, 5-4. Myrtle Beach got one of the runs back on a Tyler Alamo sacrifice fly to make it a 6-4 ballgame.
The Blue Rocks and Pelicans play the middle game of the series on Saturday, August 11 at 6:05 p.m. Right-hander Andres Sotillet (1-3, 5.55 ERA) starts for the Blue Rocks while lefty Bryan Hudson (6-9, 4.30 ERA) starts for Myrtle Beach. Fans can listen to the game on 89.7 WGLS-FM as Cory Nidoh has the call.
PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:
The Blue Rocks hit multiple home runs in a game for the second time in the last three contests. On Wednesday at Salem, both Travis Jones and Angelo Castellano homered in a Wilmington 6-2 win. Friday, Brewer Hicklen smacked his first-career Advanced-A home run in the top of the ninth inning to ignite the rally. Meibrys Viloria hit his sixth homer of the year over the right field wall to make it the 10^th time this season the Rocks hit two home runs or more in a game this season.
Meibrys Viloria provided most of the offense Friday night and turned in his third, four-RBI game of the season with Wilmington. He drove in four runs in two different games in the month of June with his first coming on June 3 at Salem before another on the 24^th at Potomac. The catcher leads all Wilmington hitters with the trio of four RBI games surpassing Emmanuel Rivera who has two.