After winning the first two games of the series, the Wilmington Blue Rocks took their first loss in this six-game set against the Brooklyn Cyclones by a score of 5-1.

Other than that one run, Wilmington’s offense struggled throughout the game. A big part of that is the strong outing by Brooklyn’s starter, Kade Morris. Morris allowed just four hits in six innings while striking out two.

“Their pitcher did a good job,” manager Mario Lisson said. “Sometimes you just have to tip your hat. We just gotta come back tomorrow and do it again.”

The only bit of offense the Blue Rocks really had was in the bottom of the second when Jared McKenzie led off with a single into center field. Joe Naranjo followed it up with a double to put runners at second and third.

“Pitcher fell behind 3-0 and I knew I was going to get a good pitch to hit,” Naranjo said. “Mario gave the go-ahead to swing and do damage.”

T.J. White, whose 11-game hitting streak came to an end in this one, did still contribute positively, grounding out to first but scoring McKenzie from third.

On the defensive side of the ball, Jose Atencio took the mound for the Blue Rocks and put up one of his best performances at High-A thus far.

“I was feeling great on the mound today,” Atencio said. “I felt like everything was going my way. I was just trying to do my thing by locating and trusting my pitches.”

Atencio tied a career high with six innings pitched and seven strikeouts. His stuff was working today, inducing ten swings and misses.

“The cutter 100 percent was working for me,” Atencio said. “They did not have that much early contact on it. It also had swing and miss on it as well.”

Atencio was cruising until the top of the sixth inning with two outs when Naranjo lost a pop-up in the sun that hit him square in the chest.

“The sun was kind of brutal,” Naranjo said. “That late in the game, it was unfortunate for the situation that was taking place.”

This is now a back-to-back outing for Atencio where errors have cost him the win. In his last two starts, he has given up nine runs, but only one of them has been earned.

“We are professional players and this is a long process,” Atencio said. “Sometimes you just have to think that you are doing okay and it is not on you. You are making your pitches, throwing the way you want. If the guys are not doing it, you just got to keep going and push forward.”

Lisson agreed with Atencio’s sentiment, talking after the game about how Atencio can only control what he can control. He just got unlucky in his last two starts.

The score stayed at 2-1 until the top of the ninth. Jaren Zinn came in for Wilmington and struggled with his command. He walked four in just 0.2 innings pitched. Among those four walks, two of them were with the bases loaded, allowing two runs to cross the plate. Thomas Schultz replaced Zinn with the bases loaded and two outs. After walking another to bring the score to 5-1, Schultz finally got the third out to end the inning.

McKenzie did try to get a rally going in the bottom of the ninth with a lead-off single, but three consecutive strikeouts by Joshua Cornielly for the Cyclones got him his seventh save and ended the ball game.

The Blue Rocks will look to at least secure a series split tomorrow against the Cyclones, while Brooklyn will look to tie it up at two games apiece.

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