Mendoza Walks It Off For A 3-2 Blue Rocks Win

The Wilmington Blue Rocks (8-6) had their first walk-off victory of the season on Saturday night when Drew Mendoza hit a single with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth to defeat the Hickory Crawdads (5-9) 3-2.

Despite the fact the game ended with offensive excitement, for the majority of the game all eyes were on the pitching. Blue Rocks starter Seth Shuman pitched a perfect game through his first five innings on the mound while the Crawdads starter Mason Englert gave up only one run on three hits.

That one run came from left fielder Yasel Antuna when he hit his first home run of the season in the bottom of the first.

This would be the only run scored until the top of the sixth, which was when Shuman’s perfect game was broken up. It started when Hickory center fielder Angel Aponte got his team’s first hit of the game with a double. Aponte would then be brought home by catcher Randy Florentino’s RBI single.

In the bottom of the seventh, Hickory relief pitcher Eudrys Manon walked Antuna to start off the inning. Antuna then stole both second and third and reached home on a wild pitch to break the tie in favor of Blue Rocks 2-1.

The Crawdads didn’t let Wilmington grab the win that easily as they strung together a series of hits which was started once again by Aponte in the bottom of the eighth. Third baseman Cristian Inoa would hit a sac fly to bring in Aponte with two outs to tie the game 2-2.

It looked like Hickory would take the lead when first baseman Jake Guenther hit a line drive to the right field corner with left fielder Trevor Hauver on first. Hauver would try to score, but Blue Rocks second baseman Darren Baker would make a beautiful throw to catcher Israel Pineda to tag him out at home.

After two scoreless half innings, the Blue Rocks would come up to bat in the ninth with the game tied.

Right from the jump, Baker would get on base with a single. Hickory relief pitcher Josh Smith would then record back-to-back walks, which allowed Mendoza to get up to bat and win the game for Wilmington.

While Shuman had a strong outing, Blue Rocks reliever Tyler Yankosky would be credited with the win. Wilmington now heads into the last game of the series with the 3-2 lead. The two faceoff one last time this month on Sunday, April 24 at 1:05 p.m.