Cortland Lawson attempts to turn a double play. - Photo via Ryan Griffith
The Wilmington Blue Rocks faced off against the Aberdeen IronBirds and ultimately fell by a score of 3-1, tying each other up in the second half, standing at 10-12.
On a day when the Rocks’ offense did not do much, starting pitcher Travis Sthele did his best to keep his team in the game.
Sthele at home so far this season has been one of the best pitchers in the South Atlantic League thus far. He holds a 2.56 ERA at home, which is good enough for the third-best in the league.
“I have a lot of confidence in him; he’s a strike thrower,” Cortland Lawson said. “He’s always around his zone. He competes really hard, and yeah, it’s fun to play defense behind him.”
Sthele did put up another quality start, giving up two runs in seven innings. One of the runs he gave was not balls that were particularly hit hard, just some small balls that can take place in a stadium as big as Frawley Stadium.
He also left one over the heart of the plate that Thomas Sosa pulled over the wall that he just stood home plate and admired, everyone in the stadium knew that the ball was gone right off the bat.
Bryan Caceres came into the game to replace Stehle, and had trouble with command, walking three in 1.2 innings, while also giving up the third run of the game for Wilmington.
Wilmington’s offense had a hard time converting when runners were in scoring positions.
One player who found himself on base a lot in the game was Lawson, who went three for three and drew a walk.
“I mean, I felt like I had a good work day today during BP and before the game,” Lawson said. Today I just kind of trusted my swing and saw the ball well,”
The other player who had a nice day for Wilmington was Sam Petersen. He got on base and scored a run. He also robbed what would have been a home run in left field; he scaled the whole wall to get his outstretched glove over the wall.
T.J. White also picked up an RBI, Wilmington’s only one of the game.
“Just the effort from him was unbelievable,” Lawson said. “He’s a really good outfielder. He’s very, very toolsy and just very, very smart out there, and he just let his athleticism play there.”
The Blue Rocks did not go down without a fight in the bottom of the ninth inning. Marcus Brown led off the inning with a single. Then Caleb Farmer and Sam Petersen walked to load the bases. This brought up the struggling Jared McKenzie with the bases loaded and two outs. Last season, he hit multiple walkoffs. This time around, McKenzie was not able to come through and struck out to end the game.
Wilmington will look to rebound tomorrow night against Aberdeen, with Alex Clemmey on the mound. Tomorrow will be Clemmey’s first start since the Futures Game.
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