Lynchburg, VA – On a night the Wilmington Blue Rocks hit into a franchise record six double plays, one off the Carolina League record, the Blue Crew needed some spectacular pitching. They got it from the piggybacking duo of Everett Teaford and Greg Holland. Teaford (1-0) fired six scoreless innings at the start, retiring 14 in a row at one point for his first win, while Holland hurled three shutout frames for his first save in a 2-0 blanking of the Lynchburg Hillcats on Friday night. The Blue Rocks (3-5) earned both their first shutout and first back-to-back wins of 2008 with a three-hitter that took just one hour and 56 minutes to complete.

Teaford surrendered just two hits and one walk while striking our four at the start, and his piggybacking partner, Holland, allowed just one hit and a walk with four strikeouts as well. The duo has combined to toss all 18 innings, allowing just one run, over two of the Blue Rocks’ three wins in 2008.

The Blue Rocks scratched out their lone runs in the third and fourth innings. In the third, Kurt Mertins led off with a four-pitch walk and stole second base. After Matt Morizio struck out, Brett Bigler smoked a comeback single up the middle that made contact with the pitcher Jared Hughes and flew into center field to plate Mertins from second base for a 1-0 lead.

The fourth inning started similarly with a leadoff walk by Chris McConnell. Jeff Bianchi slapped his second hit of the year thereafter, an opposite-way single into right field that sent McConnell from first to third. With runners at the corners and nobody out, Wilmington right fielder Joe Dickerson belted an opposite-way single into left field that scored McConnell.

Hughes (0-1) vascillated between a dominant sinking fastball an erratic misses of the strike zone in defeat. He allowed just two runs on four hits over his six innings, but walked five batters and struck out only three.

Pitching and defense were the true stories of the night though, with the record-setting effort from Lynchburg and some individual highlight-caliber plays by Blue Rocks.

The Wilmington offense hit into a double play in each of the game’s first five innings. McConnell went 5-4-3 in the first; David Wood suffered 5-4-3 in the second and 6-4-3 in the fourth; Bigler (caught stealing 2-4) and Derrick Robinson (strikeout swinging) combined on a strike-‘em-out, throw-‘em-out double play in the third; and Bigler also bounced into a 4-6-3 twin killing in the fifth. In the seventh inning, Morizio grounded into the last DP turned by the Hillcats, a bases-loaded 6-6-3 turn.

Among the Blue Rock gems, shortstop Chris McConnell snared a hard-hit grounder off the bat of burly clean-up hitter Kent Sakamoto in the fourth inning, sliding on one knee, spinning 360 degrees and popping up into a bullet throw to first base.

Center fielder Derrick Robinson also widened the eyes of the announced 4,126 in attendance with a diving robbery of Sakamoto on the left-center warning track in the seventh. Robinson’s momentum toward the wall forced him to tumble after the grab, rolling on the track. But after a pause, home plate umpire A.J. Johnson raised his right arm to signal “out” as Robinson produced the rawhide still in his glove.

The middle match-up of the three-games series on Saturday night will sport Wilmington right-hander Jason Godin (0-0, 9.82) against Lynchburg righty Michael Crotta (1-0, 4.26). First pitch is set for 6:05 p.m. at Lynchburg’s City Stadium.

PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:
The Carolina League record for double plays in one game is seven. The Raleigh Pirates turned seven twin killings against the Burlington Senators on August 9, 1967. The Pirates worked those consecutively to boot. Coincidentally, the Hillcats are the current Carolina League affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Joe Dickerson finished the game 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI, extending his hitting streak to a team-best seven games. During the streak, Dickerson is 13-for-25 (.420) with five extra-base hits, six RBIs, five steals and seven runs scored. He boasts an OPS of 1.261 to start the season and has four straight multi-hit efforts.

While Dickerson’s streak continued, leadoff man Derrick Robinson saw his five-game hitting streak come to a close with an 0-for-3 night at the plate. Robinson did reach base, however, with a walk in the opening inning, his first on the season.

First baseman David Wood was the only Blue Rock that failed to reach base on the night, finishing 0-for-2 at the plate. The large lefty did lay down a successful sacrifice bunt though in the seventh inning.

Dating back to the 2007 season, the Blue Rocks have won 11 straight games against the Hillcats.

Everett Teaford’s six-inning showing marks the first time a Blue Rock starter has gone six or more innings this season.