The Wilmington Blue Rocks have fallen to 0-4 in the young season. This time it was to the Hub City Spartanburgers, who defeated the Rocks in what was Wilmington’s first home game of the season by a score of 6-1.

The teams both got to scoring relatively quickly in the game, but the Spartanburgers got on the board first.

At the top of the first, the Rangers’ No. 10 prospect, Dylan Dreiling, led off the game with a single. Anthony Gutiérrez then placed a ball into the right-center field gap that was soft enough to prevent a double but still hard enough to advance Dreiling from first to third. Casey Cook then grounded into a fielder’s choice to score Dreiling and give Hub City a 1-0 advantage. 

The Blue Rocks responded in the bottom of the second inning, though. Elijah Green got the inning started with a leadoff walk, and then two more walks from Hub City starter Leandro Lopez loaded the bases. Lopez then balked, which scored the Rocks’ first and only run of the game. 

After the first run, the Blue Rocks’ offense once again could not manage to do much. This has been an early theme of the Rocks’ season so far, as they have scored six runs in just four games. Only two of the Rocks’ starting nine players in the lineup are currently hitting above .200. It is still early in the season, and the team still has full confidence that the bats will wake up at some point.

“We are looking for anybody [to create a spark],” manager Jake Lowery said. “It is a one through nine kind of thing. It is still early in the season, guys are still getting used to their at-bats and the backdrop. So there is no panic from us.”

Blue Rocks starter, Travis Sthele, gave up just the one run in this game. It was his first career High-A start, and he looked confident out there.

“I think just surrounding myself with a great group of guys,” Sthele said. “Me and Caleb [Lomavita] tonight, you know, we were in a little groove out there, and it worked out for us.”

He did have some trouble in the third and fourth innings, allowing base runners. In both innings, there were runners on second and third and two outs. In both occurrences, he worked himself out of the jam.

“I was able to reset a little bit and make some pitches that I had to,” Sthele said. “We got out of some jams, and I gave my team a shot to win.”

He ended both innings striking out the opposing batter. He finished the game with four strikeouts in five innings pitched.

“The changeup was working really well tonight,” Sthele said. “They were pretty aggressive out there as well, so I kept them off balance with that.”

Chance Huff came into the game during the sixth inning, losing the lead and ultimately the game for Wilmington. Hub City hitter, Arturo Disla, hit a hard double into the gap. This then brought up Gleider Figuereo, who hit a single and advanced Disla to third. The next batter, Danyer Cueva, then hit a sacrifice fly to score Disla from third. The Spartanburgers were not done in the inning, with Quincy Scott hitting a single that added another run.

In the top of the seventh inning, Hub City added three more insurance runs, which were ultimately too much for the Rocks to overcome.

The start that the Blue Rocks started the season with is the opposite of what they have had compared to that. Last season, they began the season with an exciting walk-off-filled home stand, going 3-1 in their first four games. This time around has been a more unpleasant experience. But in the end, the Rocks missed the playoffs, so maybe this year there will be an opposite end to their season.

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