Wilmington Falters 3-2 In A 12-Inning Affair With Asheville

WILMINGTON, DE - The Wilmington Blue Rocks (30-35) were defeated by the Asheville Tourists (29-36) by a final score of 3-2 in 12 innings on Wednesday, June 18 at Daniel S. Frawley Stadium.

On the back of dropping the series-opener on Tuesday, it didn’t take long for Wilmington to strike first in this one, as Sam Petersen and Courtland Lawson got things started in the bottom of the first with two singles. Then, after Petersen scored on a wild pitch from Asheville starter Brett Gillis, Caleb Lomavita poked a single into right field that scored Lawson and gave the Rocks a two-run advantage.

After escaping a tight jam in the top of the third, Wilmington starter and No. 1 prospect in the Nationals organization Travis Sykora finally blinked in the top of the fourth as Lucas Spence led off the inning with a triple and later scored on an RBI single by Drew Vogel that also scored Kenni Gomez, knotting the game up at two.

That’s where the score remained all the way until the top of the 12th, when Gomez got things going in extra innings by blooping a single into shallow left field that was hit softly enough to allow Will Bush to score from second and give the Tourists a 3-2 lead, one they wouldn’t relinquish. Wilmington failed to respond in the bottom half of the 12th and didn’t score in extra innings, leaving five runners on base.

Despite some trouble in the third and fourth innings, Syroka was good all-around, tossing 5 ⅔ innings of two-run ball and pitching into the sixth inning for the first time with the Blue Rocks. The 21-year-old allowed just three hits, walked four and struck out seven batters. On the other hand, Gillis pitched allowed two runs in six hits for Asheville, allowing four hits and striking out four.

Wilmington only recorded six hits, with five of them coming from Lawson and Lomavita. The Rocks have scored just five runs in the first two games of this series, totaling 13 hits and going just 4-19 with runners in scoring position.

The Blue Rocks have a chance to right the ship and record their first win of this six-game series on Thursday, June 19 at 6:35 p.m.