Weekly Review July 8th

Wilmington 3 – Columbia 4

The Sharks had themselves in position for another wild walk off at the Shark Tank, but could not tap into the magic as they fell 4-3 to the Blowfish Tuesday night.

Mike Rudman made his first start of the season throwing well through four. He ran into a bit of a wall in the 5th, walking four, giving up one but got out of the inning with the lead. In the sixth Peter Larson came on in relief but struggled giving up a run on three walks. Cory Burgess came on and induced a double play ball to end the sixth and preserve the tie.

Burgess had struggles of his own in the seventh. A hit batsman and walk put the first two on. With two down a wild pitch and a single brought home two handing Burgess his second loss on the season.

The Sharks tried to answer with one in the seventh when with two down and runners on first and third the Columbia second baseman dropped an infield pop to bring home a run. That was as close the Wilmington boys came, picking up just a walk in the final two frames.

At the plate Ben Kline led the way with a 3-4 night scoring a run. Tyler White was lights out from the pen again throwing a scoreless two innings walking one, striking out four.

Wilmington 0 – Florence 1

Kyle Barry held the Redwolves to just one run through seven and a third innings Thursday, but the Sharks offense produced only four hits falling 1-0.

What turned out to be the winning run came across to beat Barry in the seventh inning on a one out double then two out single. Aside from that Barry allowed just five other hits, walking three and striking out four in an excellent first start for the Sharks.

In the first, a single off the bat of Jordan Casas looked like a promising start to the night but after a sac bunt and two groundouts he was left at third. In the fourth the Sharks mounted a one out threat when Bobby Leeper singled and Mike Alvarez doubled. Once again though the big hit remained out of reach as they were stranded at second and third. Alvarez was at the plate again in the eighth with the bases loaded but a diving catch on a looper into right field kept the Sharks off the board and sent them to thier second straight loss.

Wilmington – Columbia
*Game was postponed due to weather and will resume July 27th at Columbia preceding the regularly scheduled game.

Wilmington 4 – Columbia 0

Bryant Gaines put together his second complete game of the season, shutting out the visiting Blowfish on just three hits to back the 4-0 Sharks win.

Gaines set down the first six Columbia batters in a row. A little Sharks defense helpped him out of his only real jam of the night. With runners on the corners and just one down, third baseman Mike Alvarez fielded a grounder right at the bag, tagged the retreating runner and fired across the diamond for the inning ending double play. After that Gaines gave up just two hits and walk, striking out two.

The four runs of support for Gaines came in two separate innings. First in the fifth, with one down John Nester singled and came home on a Ryan Graepel double down the line. With two out Matt Kirchner added a second run with an RBI double of his own.

The Sharks plated two more in the seventh. Neal Pritchard singled to lead things off. Nester again was in the middle of the Shark attack, sending a double to right to put runners at second and third. Pritchard scored the Shark's third run on a Graepel sac fly. Daniel Parker cleaned things up, bringing Nester home from third with a two out single of his own.
The win gives the Sharks their first victory of the second half, putting them at 1-2 in the renewed run for the division crown.

Wilmington 4 – Wilson 0

Eric Callender held Wilson scoreless through his seven innings to bring the streaking Tobs to a halt, 4-0 at the Shark Tank.

Callender's scoreless seven moved his record to 3-3 on the season. The right hander allowed just four hits to keep the Tobs off the board. Tyler White kept Wilson down late picking up his third save giving up just one hit through the eighth and ninth. White added three punchouts to bring his season total to 35.

Bobby Leeper came up huge for the Sharks offensively with a 3-4 night, scoring two of the Wilmington runs and driving in a third. Leeper started things in the first with a lead-off single. While stealing second the throw sailed into center field allowing Leeper to advance to third where the throw again got past the Tob defender and Leeper scampered home with the Sharks first run.

Another run came home in the second when John Nester singled and stole second with one down. Neal Pritchard then lashed a double to right center to score Nester and set the score at 2-0. It was Leeper again making things happen in the fifth. Matt Kirchner led things off with a single before Leeper stepped to the plate and blasted his third home run of the season, deep to center field.

The Sharks pull back even on the second half with the win and have two more home games over the next two days.