Blue Rocks Strike Early, Hold on Late

Kinston, N.C. - The Wilmington Blue Rocks (30-27) jumped out to an early lead and held on in the ninth inning for a 5-4 victory over the Down East Wood Ducks (21-36) Monday night at Grainger Stadium. Nathan Esposito led the offensive nine for the Blue Crew tallying three hits while driving in a trio of runs. It was the first time this season the backstop had that type of offensive production in a game this year. With the win, it marks the 11^th one-run victory for the Blue Rocks this season. The Rocks are now four games out of first place with 13 games remaining in the opening half.

In the top of the second inning, the Rocks used patience at the plate to set the stage for Esposito. Three consecutive walks by Chase Vallot, Wander Franco and Roman Collins loaded the bases to start the inning before Esposito singled to right field to score Vallot and Franco to give the Rocks a 2-0 lead. In the third inning, Brandon Downes launched a lead-off solo home run to extend Wilmington's lead, 3-0. In the fourth, the Rocks again loaded the bases and capitalized on a Down East error to take a 4-0 advantage.
The Wood Ducks answered back in the bottom half of the inning. Preston Scott tripled home the first run of the game for Down East to make it 4-1 before an RBI single from Josh Altmann and a Tyler Sanchez sacrifice fly quickly make it a 4-3 ballgame. In the seventh inning, it was Esposito delivering again with an RBI groundout to give the Rocks a vital insurance run, 5-3. In the ninth inning, Luis La O homered to pull the Wood Ducks within a run once more, but RHP Franco Terrero induced three straight ground outs to earn the save and preserve the 5-4 win for Wilmington.

RHP Andres Machado (2-5) earned the win in his second start with the Blue Rocks, tying a career-high with six innings pitched and allowed three earned runs.
The three-games series concludes on Tuesday, June 6 with first pitch scheduled for 7:00 p.m. RHP Jared Ruxer (3-1, 3.05 ERA) makes the start for the Rocks while RHP Emerson Martinez (0-5, 6.43 ERA) will start for the Wood Ducks. Fans can listen to the game as Matt Janus will have the call on 89.7 WGLS-FM.
PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:
With the win, the Rocks have taken five of their first six games against the Wood Ducks in 2017. Offensively, the Blue Crew enjoy playing one of the newest teams in the league. In the six game span, Wilmington has posted a .313 team batting average, have outscored the Wood Ducks 43-24, have pounded out 72 total hits, including 22 extra-base hits, 10 of them being home runs. Individually, Anderson Miller leads the way after picking up a pair of doubles in the victory on Monday. Miller also collected two hits in the series opener on Sunday. Overall against Down East, Miller is hitting .481 (13-for-27) with two home runs, eight RBI and six runs scored.
Nathan Esposito has been one of the hottest bats in the Rocks' lineup. His three hits are the most in a single game for him in 2017. He picked up three hits in a single-game three different occasions last season, with the last game being on August 9, 2016 when he was with the Burlington Royals. His last three RBI game was on July 24, 2016. With the three-hit game, Esposito extended his career-long hitting streak to ten games and is hitting .405 (15-for-37 during that span.
Brandon Downes continues to be a key addition to the Rocks lineup. Downes returned to the Blue Rocks active roster on Wednesday after missing the last six weeks due to a broken hammate bone, which he suffered against the Carolina Mudcats on April 11. Downes had started the season 5-for-18 with a homer, two triples, an RBI and two runs scored in five games with Wilmington. He is hitting .400 (8-for-20) with three homers, six RBI and has scored seven runs since his return. Last season, Downes led the Blue Rocks with 12 homers in 130 games played. This year, he has already hit four home runs in 11 games with a six-week hiatus due to injury during that stretch. 
THEY SAID IT: JAMIE QUIRK
"It was big for us. (Machado) started off good, had the rough fourth inning, but his last two innings he rebounded and it might have been his best two innings. (Justin) Camp was huge. He also rebounded after having a rough first outing and gave us two huge innings and allowed us to get to the ninth and add a run. It's all about the pitching. Machado is in the rotation now once (Foster) Griffin left and we are going to need him. He had his best outing tonight I believe.
"(Nate) Esposito is doing great. He's catching, hitting, he knows what kind of hitter he is. He just stays within himself, puts the ball in play. He had three RBIs and three hits. He has really, really played well. He will be down tomorrow with Chase (Vallot) is back and catch tomorrow. Esposito has played in five straight games and has done great."
"(Vallot) has been out a few days (hit by pitch on Thursday) but we got him back in there. He's a big part of our lineup and we need him. He's back and feels good now. He's going to catch (Tuesday) and be back in the middle of everything"
Nate Espostio, Catcher
"It was a big win. One-run ballgames we struggled with early in the year. We played good baseball, but now we are taking advantage of those games. We get up early, fight on defense and our pitching has been really good."
"The more at-bats you get; the better timing gets. (On more playing time over last week). (Vallot) will be back in there and I'm hoping he's feeling better, but when he's not, I'll take advantage of the opportunity."
"Sometimes that's baseball (with team scoring just enough, but had more chance with runners in scoring position). You can't always drive everyone in. If you can execute at least a third or half of those at-bats, we'll be alright. You just have to play good defense."

"Machado was grinding through today. He took a ball early off his foot, gave up a couple numbers so I talked to him and he was just fired up. He had the mindset that he wasn't coming out of this game, he's staying in. So, we rode his momentum big time on defense. He was absolutely carving (Down East), it was good."
"Absolutely. (Impressed by bullpen this year) The work they put in that people don't see is incredible. To have a bullpen that constantly hammers the strike zone, has good breaking balls and keeps the ball down, you can't get any better than that. That's huge for us."
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