Offense and Garabito Shine in Win

Wilmington, DE- A six-run sixth inning pushed the Wilmington Blue Rocks (35-42 / 4-3) past the Lynchburg Hillcats (33-42 / 5-3) en route to a 9-2 victory Thursday night at Frawley Stadium. Wilmington's starter Gerson Garabito kept the Blue Rocks in the game early and turned in seven strong innings to earn his first win at home. Offensively, the Blue Rocks pounded out 11 hits while four different Blue Rocks put together multi-hit efforts at the plate.
 

Trailing 2-0 heading into the bottom of the sixth inning, the Blue Rocks erased the deficit and chased Lynchburg's starter Zach Plesac out of the game after he struck out eight batters through the first five innings of the game. Blake Perkins led the inning off with a bunt single before D.J. Burt doubled to set the Rocks up. Gabriel Cancel followed with a game-tying single to center field to plate both runners. Travis Jones walked to chase Plesac out of the game. After a pair of strikeouts, Rudy Martin walked before Chase Vallot was hit by an 0-2 pitch with the bases loaded to put the Rocks out in front 3-2. Angelo Castellano then blooped a line drive down the right field line to clear the bases and put the Rocks out in front, 6-2.
Wilmington added another run in the seventh on an RBI single by Meibrys Viloria to make it 7-2 ballgame before the Blue Crew added two more runs in the eighth on a bases loaded RBI walk by Cancel and run-scoring single from Jones to give the game its final score, 9-2.
Garabito tossed seven innings, allowed two runs (one earned) on three hits, walked three and struck out four to earn his third win of the season. Vance Tatum tossed the final two innings in scoreless fashion.
The series finale of the of the five-game series between the two Northern Division foes will be played on Friday, June 29 at Frawley Stadium with first pitch at 7:05 p.m. The Blue Rocks will send right-hander Nolan Watson (0-0, 11.25 ERA) on the mound while Lynchburg will send righty Justin Garza (3-5, 4.23 ERA). Fans can tune into the game with Matt Janus and Cory Nidoh on 89.7 WGLS-FM.
PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:
The Blue Rocks earned their 19th come-from-behind victory on Thursday night after erasing a 2-0 deficit in the sixth inning. Wilmington improved to a 25-9 record in games where the team scores four or more runs and stay a perfect 28-0 when they lead after eight innings. The Rocks have also scored four or more runs in a single inning in three of their last five victories. The Rocks have now won 8 of the first 11 games against Lynchburg.
 
Blue Rocks starter Gerson Garabito tied a career and season-high with seven full innings pitched in the winning effort on Thursday night. The win is the first one for Garabito since June 3 against the Salem Red Sox. The performance marks the tenth time a Wilmington starter has pitched seven full innings and the third time Garabito has achieved the mark. The last time the righty worked seven innings was back on May 29 against the Frederick Keys in a narrow 2-1 loss.
With a three-run triple in the bottom of the sixth, Angelo Castellano achieved his third multi-RBI game of the season. Castellano is now the tenth Blue Rock to have a multi-RBI game with three or more runs driven in. Gabriel Cancel tied the game with a two-run single in the bottom of the sixth. Cancel is now the leader on the active roster in multi-RBI games with ten. Former Blue Rocks Kahlil Lee and Kort Peterson also amassed ten total multi-RBI games this season prior to their promotions to Double-A Northwest Arkansas.