Rocks Outlast Dash in Pitching Duel

Winston-Salem, N.C. - The Wilmington Blue Rocks used a combination of three pitchers to keep the potent offense of the Winston-Salem Dash at bay in a 2-1 victory on Saturday at BB&T Ballpark. Cristian Castillo, Carter Hope and Bryan Brickhouse allowed just six hits and struck out eight batters in the win. Chris DeVito paced the offense with four hits in the winning effort.

It was an old fashioned pitching duel in the third game of the series as Castillo set the tone early for the Blue Rocks. The lefty did not allow a hit until there were two outs in the third inning as he tossed four strong innings in his spot start. The scoring didn't occur until the seventh inning when the Blue Crew broke the scoreless stalemate. DeVito roped a two-out double before Vizcaino scored him with a single to left field to put the Rocks up 1-0.
The Blue Rocks added a vital insurance run in the top of the ninth inning. Gabriel Cancel ripped a double to center field, moved to third on a groundout and came home to score on DeVito's RBI single to make it a 2-0 ballgame. The Dash tacked on a run in the bottom of the inning. Nate Nolan singled and advanced to second on an error. Two batters later, Alex Call singled home Nolan to make it a one-run ballgame. Brickhouse got Gavin Sheets to fly out to end the game and earned his 12^th save of the season.
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Wilmington and Winston-Salem wrap up the first half of the 2018 campaign with a 2:00 Father's Day afternoon tilt in Sunday, June 17. The Blue Rocks will send left Daniel Tillo (1-1, 3.86 ERA) to the mound while the Dash's starter is to be determined. Fans can listen to the game as Matt Janus will have the call on 89.7 WGLS-FM.
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The combination of Cristian Castillo , Carter Hope and Bryan Brickhouse combined to allow just one run in the winning effort. Castillo tossed four scoreless innings, allowed one hit, walked one and struck out two. Hope earned his third win of the season with three scoreless innings, allowed three hits and struck out three. The Carolina League All-Star Brickhouse allowed the lone run on two hits, struck out three in two innings of work to earn his 12^th save.
Chris DeVito turned in just the third, four-hit game by a Blue Rock this season and his first of the season. The slugging first base man had a pair of singles and two doubles in his four at-bats. DeVito now has six multi-hit games on the season with his previous five coming in the two-hit variety. It was eighth four-hit game of his career.
The Blue Rocks will look for the series split on Sunday to close out the first half with a potential 31-39 record. The Blue Crew finished up the first half with seven straight games against Southern Division foes. They dropped two of three against Down East and on the season are 8-11 against Southern Division teams this season and just 3-7 on the road.
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