The skies opened up in the middle of the first game of a seven-inning doubleheader between the Wilmington Blue Rocks and Hudson Valley Renegades. Even though the second game was postponed, the first was counted after just six innings of play.

Unfortunately for Wilmington, they lost their second game in a row to Hudson Valley, this time by a score of 4-2.

Coming off a 10-2 loss the night before, where they did not score until the eighth inning, the Rocks’ offense struck first. It all started with a Will Frizzell walk, followed by a double down the left-field line by recent call-up Gavin Dugas, which advanced Frizzell to third.

“He is making a lot of adjustments right now,” manager Mario Lisson said. “He really struggled in Bowling Green, so this time around he stayed in the zone more and just put the ball in play.”

This allowed T.J. White to hit a sacrifice fly into left field, which enabled Frizzell to score easily.

Luke Young got the start for Wilmington and had a relatively short leash, pitching only 4.1 innings. He gave up a run in the top of the third. A catcher’s interference and a single from Jared Serna ultimately got Young pulled.

Thomas Schultz replaced Young with runners on first and second. This was Schultz’s first appearance for the Blue Rocks; like Dugas, he was recently called up from Fredericksburg. He got the first out, but Rafael Flores then smoked a double, allowing two runs to score.

Schultz came back for the sixth inning and had an easy 1-2-3 inning.

“He missed on the location and their guy hit the ball hard,” Lisson said. “They do have pretty good hitters. It was a pitch that stayed up in the zone. He bounced back pretty well and he has good stuff. He threw strikes and was not afraid of the moment.”

With the call-ups of Todd Peterson, Marquis Grissom, and most recently Carlos Romero, Wilmington needs bullpen arms like Schultz to step up for the team.

“We would like to see everyone step up,” Lisson said. “For the most part, they have all been solid. We have had a couple of hiccups here and there with some of the guys. We have to find guys who can thrive in those situations.”

Former Blue Rock Dannel Diaz, who was called up from Fredericksburg, is looking for a better go of it this time around in Wilmington, especially for a team that is in need of relievers. He got an opportunity to pitch in this game and let up one run in 0.1 innings of work.

Diaz, along with the rest of the bullpen, other than Schultz, will be available for tomorrow. The X-factor for the rest of the series for the Blue Rocks will be how they pitch to Serna. Serna already has four home runs in five games and has a hit in every game against the Rocks.

The second game of this doubleheader was moved to the next day, Thursday, June 6, where the Blue Rocks will look to even up this eight-game series 2-2.

For comments/questions about this story DM us on Instagram @TheWhitSports or email @the.whit.sport@gmail.com