WILMINGTON, Del — The Wilmington Blue Rocks defeated the Asheville Tourists on Saturday, 9-3, at Frawley Stadium. The two teams had a pitchers duel throughout a majority of the game.
Blue Rocks right-handed pitcher Issac Lyon started the game, and struck out six batters in four innings of work, just allowing two hits.
“I’m just trying to establish the zone early, pound the zone, and just kind of let my defense play and let the strikeouts come,” said Lyon.
Lyon was pulled in the top of the fifth inning for left-handed pitcher Gavin Bruni. Bruni, like Lyon, went four strong innings, totaling five strike outs, and also just allowing two hits.
“Just commanding the zone, getting ahead early, and then once I did, I put my stuff where I needed to, down in the zone,” said Bruni. “When Issac goes out there, and gives you a strong four, you gotta kinda back that up.”
Asheville’s starter, Dylan Howard, put in six innings of work and limited Wilmington to just two hits, and punching out seven batters.
The game would be unknotted when Howard was pulled in the bottom of the seventh, as Tourists right-handed reliever Joan Ogando would take the mound.
Ogando would walk the first three batters he saw, that being designated hitter T.J. White, first baseman Randal Diaz, and right fielder Teo Banks, and suddenly, the bases were loaded.
Catcher Caleb Farmer hit a sac-fly to right to score White, to put Wilmington ahead by one run, and the first run of the game.
Left fielder Elijah Nunez would shoot a line drive to right field, and score Diaz and Banks.
“I was just looking for a good pitch to hit, something out over the plate, and I put a good swing on it,” said Nunez.
Nunez only has praise for this group.
“Man, it’s so fun to be with these guys,” said Nunez. “The more you get to play, the more you get to know these guys, everyone’s from all over the world. So it’s just fun to get to know them and get to compete with some of the best players in the world.”
From then on, the Blue Rocks kept pouring in runs. As they would score one more in the seventh, and tallied a total of five runs in the bottom of the eighth inning.
“The thing with our guys is they stay together, they keep picking away, and you know, you’re gonna have to have a clutch hit from time to time, and Nunez was the guy tonight,” said Tom.
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