Blue Rocks Fall to Renegades 8-4 in Series Finale

The Blue Rocks and Renegades brought the fireworks early during the Memorial Day Weekend Sunday cap to the six-game series.

The Renegades jumped out to an early lead for the second game in a row, scoring two runs from an Antonio Gomez RBI single. Spencer Jones and Alexander Vargas crossed home after reaching from a double and walk respectively on Gomez’s base hit. Blue Rocks starter Jackson Tetrault was able to roll a double-play to avoid a big inning.

The Blue Rocks wasted no time answering in the bottom of the first. A Nick Shumpert leadoff walk, followed by a Jared Mckenzie single gave way to an RBI infield hit from Will Frizzell. A Jeremy De La Rosa walk loaded the bases for Leandro Emiliani.

Emiliani drove a hard ground ball through the hole up the middle to plate two runners and give the Blue Rocks a 3-2 lead heading to the top of the second inning.

The Renegades would even things up in no time, a one-out single from Eduardo Torrealba, a walk from Marcos Cabrera, and a single from Alexander Vargas deadlocked the score at 3.

With Wilmington being held quiet in the bottom of the second, the Renegades began piling it on in the third. What began as a leadoff double from Antonio Gomez ended in five runs for Hudson Valley including a two-run home run from Grant Richardson and a solo home run for Marcos Cabrera. An error from shortstop Jordy Barley allowed an unearned run to score, making it an 8-3 game.

In the bottom of the third, Trey Lipscomb put a line drive into the left-field bullpen for his third home run of the season, cutting the deficit to just four runs.

Unfortunately for the Blue Rocks, both offenses would be halted for the rest of the game off the backs of solid bullpen outings from both sides.

For Wilmington, Dustin Saenz worked five innings allowing just one hit, one walk, and striking out seven Renegades. For Hudson Valley, the combined forces of Clay Aguilar, Jack Neely and Danny Watson dealt 3.1 innings and only surrendered two hits to Blue Rocks batters.

The Renegades took the final game by a final score of 8-4 and won the series against the Blue Rocks 4-2.

The Blue Rocks will be back in action Tuesday as they travel to Asheville, North Carolina to play the Tourists in a six-game set.