Alex Clemmey delivers the pitch. Clemmey gave up two runs across 6.2 innings. - Sunday, Apr. 27, 2025. Photo via Hannah Capolingua
The Wilmington Blue Rocks (10-21) dropped a third straight game to the Hudson Valley Renegades (21-9) on Friday by a score of 4-1.
After falling to Hudson Valley by a score of 12-1 each of the previous two nights, Nationals No. 5 prospect Alex Clemmey looked to fill the role of stopper and gave the Blue Rocks six scoreless frames, before running into trouble in the seventh.
The seventh wasn’t the first time Clemmey ran into trouble though, as he allowed a leadoff single to Coby Morales and walked Omar Martinez and Josh Moylan to load the bases with just one out. However, Clemmey was able to work out of the self-inflicted jam, getting Brenny Escanio to ground into a 4-6-3 double play to get the game tied at zero.
“I was pitching to get outs,” Clemmey said. “There’s no real focus there besides getting the double play and getting out of the inning.”
The lefty settled in from there, striking out eight across the next 4.2 innings to finish with nine on the day, before getting pulled in the seventh with two outs.
“I just got into a rhythm with the heater,” Clemmey said. “I was keeping them off balance with offspeed. It put hitters away early in counts which allowed me to get deeper into the game.”
After an RBI single from Escanio brought home the game’s first run, manager Jake Lowery turned to Anthony Arguelles to get the final out of the seventh, however, Arguelles struggled with his command, walking two straight batters to load the bases and score one before getting the final out of the inning.
Meanwhile, for the Blue Rocks, their offense struggled all day, as Josh Grosz retired 20 of the 23 batters he faced, including the first 11 straight.
“We just weren’t prepared as hitters,” Lomavita said. “We’re not going to give him credit. That’s how we are trained. We just need to prepare better and we’ve got the talent… the strength… the ability to do it, but we just didn’t come prepared to hit.”
However, Wilmington finally cracked the scoreboard once he was pulled, as Brandon Pimentel drove Caleb Lomavita, who hit a triple two at-bats earlier, home with an RBI single off reliever Hayden Merda to make it a 2-1 game.
Coming into the series against Hudson Valley, Lomavita hadn’t recorded a triple yet. Entering the game tomorrow, he’s got two to his name.
“If we win games I can get a little more excited about [the triple],” Lomavita said. “But at the end of the day, my goal this season from the jump was just to win games. We’ll get excited when we start winning.”
Unfortunately for the Blue Rocks, the Renegades tacked two insurance runs on in the ninth to put the game out of reach for any potential comeback.
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