Blue Rocks Pitching Struggles In 9-2 Loss

In the Wilmington Blue Rocks’ first game in Delaware for their home and home series against the Aberdeen IronBirds, the IronBirds dominated in a 9-2 to keep their series lead of 3-1.

Although the first inning remained scoreless for both teams, the IronBird started to build their lead at the top of the second. Left fielder Issac Bellony was the first man to get on base with a ground ball toward Blue Rocks’ first baseman, Leandro Emiliani. After both Issac De Leon and Davis Tavarez walked, shortstop Chris Galvin only needed to ground into a force-out, which sent Bellony over home plate. Maxwell Costes would do the same, allowing for De Leon to score and put the game 2-0 in Aberdeen’s favor.

The Blue Rocks were able to answer back however in the bottom of the second on a double by Wilmington’s third baseman, Cole Daily. This Daily double scored Kevin Strohschein, who had reached on a fielding error early in the inning. The game would appear close at 2-1, but this would be one of the only runs the Blue Rocks tallied over the next seven innings.

At the top of the third inning was when Aberdeen took the lead and ran with– racking up a total of five runs over the course of six batters. The first of these runs came off of an RBI single by right fielder David Tavarez. Tavarez scored Luis Valdez, who had reached on a fielding error by Daily, stole second base, and advanced to third on a throwing error by catcher Onix Vega to find himself in scoring position.

The next four batters of the inning would help to load the bases and, with only one out, Wilmington replaced starting pitcher Mitchell Parker with relief Gilberto Chu. On Chu’s second pitch of the night, Tavarez hit his fifth home-run of the season for a grand slam that would mark Aberdeen’s lead 7-1.

The IronBirds would take a break for the next two innings, along with the Blue Rocks, but would start back up in the sixth inning after a sacrifice fly from Valdez would score Maxwell Cotes and tally Aberdeen at eight runs total.

Wilmington would attempt to chip away at the IronBirds’ lead at the bottom of the eighth, but by then it was too little, too late for the team. In the end, Strohschein, who had just hit a triple towards left field, would score on a balk by relief pitcher Dan Federman to make the Blue Rocks’ scoring total a mere two runs.

To top the game off, Aberdeen landed one more run at the top of the ninth. Bellony was the first batter to see first base after being hit by a pitch from Ike Schlabach, followed by De Leon, who walked. Soon after, Taravez hit a single down right field to load the bases and Chris Givin went out on a sacrifice fly to score Bellony and end the game 9-2 in the IronBirds’ favor.

Peter Van Loon, the starting pitcher for the IronBirds, was given his tenth win of the season after he pitched five innings, struck out four batters, and only allowed one run during his time on the mound. Wilmington’s starting pitcher, Parker, would be handed the loss after pitching only 2.1 innings but recording six runs during his time.

Despite this loss, the Blue Rocks could still tie this series against the IronBirds if they manage to change the tide during their next game against Aberdeen on Saturday, August 27, and again during their final game of the series on Sunday, August 28.