A rising star faces off against a proven, veteran major league starter. This storyline doesn’t often play out in High-A baseball but that’s exactly what happened on Friday night in Wilmington as the Blue Rocks secured an 8-2 victory over the Brooklyn Cyclones. The win improved Wilmington’s record to 23-32 on the season.

All eyes were on the pitching matchup as the Nationals’ prized prospect Travis Sykora took the ball for the ‘Rocks in his home debut while Sean Manaea got the call for Brooklyn, making his first start of 2025 in a series of minor league rehab stints as he recovers from an oblique strain and works his way back to the New York Mets.

Wilmington drew first blood in the bottom of the first. Manaea faced early trouble as he allowed two singles and hit a batter to load the bases before allowing a sac fly to Jackson Ross, making it a 1-0 game. 

T.J White followed Ross up with an infield single, advancing to second after an errant throw by the shortstop. Two runners scored on the play and Wilmington suddenly had a 3-0 advantage. White hustled home on a Sam Petersen single to right field, counting as the fourth runner to score in the inning. For an offense that oftentimes struggles to produce runs, it should serve as a morale boost to come through against a nine-year MLB veteran. White talked about what it meant to get hit off of Manaea.

“It’s pretty cool, you don’t really see many big leaguers here a lot,” White said. “That was good for me to get in there and get a knockoff of him.”

The four runs were all the run support Sykora needed. The Nationals top prospect and MLB’s No. 59 overall prospect showed off his talent on the mound, retiring the first 13 batters he faced. Sykora’s fastball, touching 100 in the first inning, effortlessly blew past Brooklyn batters while also proving a point Sykora wanted to make.

“My job is to show, even though I’m not facing big league hitters, that I can face off against a big league pitcher and look just like him,” Sykora said.

It wasn’t until the fifth inning that the Cyclones managed to get to Sykora, scoring two runs off a single and double. Sykora was able to get out of the inning, however, freezing the final batter on a called third strike. The five innings of work was Sykora’s longest outing of the season thus far as he is continuing to work back from offseason hip surgery. Sykora struck out seven batters and allowed just three hits during those five innings. The righty talked about how he felt about his performance on the mound. 

“My body felt great. I felt strong,” Sykora said. “Command was great. Feel was great. Being able to get ahead with sliders early in counts, that was working well. Putting guys away with the splitter, that was great. The fastball was firm so all in all, everything was working well.”

Caleb Lomavita caught Sykora tonight, continuing a partnership that was formed last season in Low-A Fredericksburg. Lomavita talked about what he saw out of the young pitcher.

“The same thing that I’ve seen the past eight times I’ve caught him, consistency,” Lomavita said. “Consistency to throw his offspeed pitches for strikes and his fastball. That’s what makes him really good.”

Lomavita also excelled in the batter’s box tonight, tallying three hits and raising his batting average to .282. Lomavita was one of six Wilmington hitters to record a multi-hit night as the offense exploded for 17 hits on the night. White accounted for three hits, one of those being a two-run blast over the left-center wall for his third homer of the season. Ever since returning to the lineup on May 18th, White is hitting for a .316 average and .885 OPS. White talked about how it felt to get his swing back to where he wanted it.

“It feels good,” White said. “I kinda needed that time off to take some time to myself and regather myself. I feel like it’s paid dividends for me.”

After suffering a 10-23 start to the season, Wilmington is four games over .500 since May 13 and will look to keep the momentum going when they take the field against the Cyclones on Saturday, June 7 at 6:05 p.m.

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