The Wilmington Blue Rocks clinched their first series victory of the season on Saturday with a 6-3 victory over the Aberdeen IronBirds at Frawley Stadium. The win improved Wilmington’s record to 7-13 on the season.

The victory was spearheaded by the performance of Caleb Lomavita. The Nationals No. 8 prospect went 3-4 with three RBIs while also hitting his first professional home run, a two-run opposite field shot in the sixth inning. Lomavita talked about the feeling of hitting his first home run.

“You’re never really trying to hit a home run,” Lomavita said. “I got a pitch up and I guess the bat did what it did. I’m pretty grateful for that home run but the bigger picture is the Blue Rocks won.”

The game almost got away from Wilmington early on. Wander Arias made a spot start for the Blue Rocks and after two clean innings, ran into major trouble in the third. After allowing two runs already and runners at first and third with one out, Arias struck out the next batter before being relieved by Anthony Arguelles. Arguelles proceeded to strike out Aberdeen’s Austin Overn and Wilmington escaped the inning only down two.

Needing an answer, T.J White delivered for the Blue Rocks in the bottom half of the third. With a runner on second and one out, White connected on a ball and sent it over the right field fence for his first homer on the season, knotting the score up at two. White led the team with 14 home runs last season but up to that moment had struggled in 2025. White talked about what that swing meant for him.

“That felt good to get us back in the game,” White said. “I know I’ve been struggling lately but I keep fighting every day. It’s not about what you’ve done already, it’s about what you’ve done lately. We just gotta keep fighting.” 

Wilmington took the lead in the next inning, courtesy of RBI singles from both Brenner Cox and Lomavita. Aberdeen would score a run in the sixth but the Lomavita homer secured the 6-3 Wilmington victory. 

After an ugly start to the season, the bullpen has started to become a reliable piece for the team to rely on. Arguelles, Marc Davis, Jared Simpson and Thomas Schultz combined to allow one run over 6.1 innings pitched. While Lomavita was given a day off from behind the plate, he talked about what he saw from the arms on the mound.

“Bullpen days are hard because they are needing to stay in the game,” Lomavita said. “They know they are going to go in the game but just not when. I thought they did a good job of staying locked in and when they heard their name called, executing the pitches they needed to so we could win the game.”

After going winless in nine games on the road and returning from Hudson Valley being swept in a six game series, the season clearly hasn’t started the way Wilmington wanted it to. However, their first series victory of 2025 is a sign that the Blue Rocks could be turning the corner. White talked about the mentality of the team going forward.

“It feels pretty good,” White said. “Obviously we want to win on the road but we gotta take the wins as they come and the losses as they come and just keep pushing forward.

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