Wilmington Stumbles In 4-3 Loss To Aberdeen

WILMINGTON, DE - The Wilmington Blue Rocks (6-13) fell late to the Aberdeen IronBirds (8-11) by a score of 4-3 on Friday, April 25.

Wilmington struck first in the bottom of the second, thanks to a two-run home run from Brandon Boissiere that carried into the Blue Rocks bullpen in left field.

Aberdeen got one back the inning later however. With one out, Aneudis Mordan smacked a double off the left field wall to get himself into scoring position for Jalen Vasquez, who drove him home with a double that split between outfielders Johnathon Thomas and Elijah Green and cut the Rocks’ lead in half.

Despite having five extra base hits through the first six frames, that was all the damage the IronBirds could muster against Rocks’ starter Travis Sthele, who gave up six hits and struck out four across 6.2 innings of work.

On the other side, the home run from Boissiere was the only source of offense that IronBirds’ starter Blake Money would allow, as he struck out seven in 5.1 innings of work. From there, Aberdeen turned to Riley Cooper to pitch the rest of the sixth, who was instantly greeted by Seaver King, as he took the third pitch of the at-bat deep for his first home run of the year and gave the Blue Rocks the 3-1 advantage.

“I kind of blacked out,” King said. “I was just looking for something over the plate. He got me to check swing on it and then went back to it and I was on time for it.”

Aberdeen’s offense stayed quiet until the ninth inning, where they put together a rally. After getting Austin Overn to pop up for the first out, the IronBirds’ strung together three straight hits, including two doubles, to tie the game at three. Then, with Ryan Stafford standing on second and two outs, Vasquez smoked a ball into right field to score Stafford and give the IronBirds a 4-3 lead entering the bottom of the ninth.

King led the bottom half of the frame off with a single into right field, but three straight fly outs to center ended any chance of a comeback win.

Wilmington currently leads the series 3-1 and will look to bounce back tomorrow, with first-pitch scheduled for 6:05 p.m