Wilmington Tops Mudcats for Ninth Straight Time

Zebulon, NC- The Wilmington Blue Rocks offense produced early and the pitching staff was stellar all evening in a wire-to-wire 6-2 win over the Carolina Mudcats on Saturday at Five County Stadium. The victory was the Blue Crew's sixth in their last seven games and got the team's overall record back to a season-high tying 22 games above .500. 

Wilmington used some small ball to stake to their early advantage. Kyle Isbel lifted a sacrifice fly in the first to make it 1-0 and then Blake Perkins  brought home Kyle Kasser with a grounder to second in the third. Dennicher Carrasco  followed that up with the Blue Crew's first RBI-hit of the night. His single brought in Michael Gigliotti and made it 3-0. 
That was enough support for Rocks starter Daniel Tillo , who tossed 5.2 scoreless frames to earn the victory. Tillo struggled with command at times, walking three, but yielded just three hits and whiffed six. 
Wilmington padded the advantage courtesy of a run-scoring single from Kasser in the fourth. That was the last tally surrendered by Carolina starter Noah's Zavolas, who did fan five over six frames, but still suffered the loss. 
The Blue Crew added two more runs against the Carolina bullpen in the seventh. Carrasco lined a single to center that plated Perkins and then Cristian Perez  legged out an infield hit to bring in Isbel. 
The Rocks continue their three-game series in Carolina on Sunday with first pitch slated for 2 p.m. Fans can catch all of the action with the Voice of the Blue Rocks, Cory Nidoh, on 89.7 WGLS-FM. 
PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:
Four continues to be the magic number for the Blue Rocks this season. Wilmington is 37-6 when scoring four-or-more times in a game, but just 22-33 when registering three or fewer tallies in a contest.
Wilmington's starting pitching has been magnificent over the last nine games. During that span the quintet of Jonathan Bowlan, Kris Bubic, Austin Cox, Marcelo Martinez and Daniel Tillohave combined to allow just six earned runs over 61.2 innings pitched. Each have turned in quality outings during that span, with Bubic and Martinez doing so twice.
The Blue Rocks have owned Carolina this season. Wilmington won its ninth consecutive meeting with the Mudcats on Saturday and until Carolina got on the board in the eighth, extended their string of scoreless innings versus the Mudcats to 17.2 frames. The eight straight victories is Wilmington's longest winning streak against any opponent this season.