K-Tribe routed by Wilmington

Published in Sports on July 5, 2007 1:48 PM

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KINSTON -- Wilmington tallied a run in five consecutive innings and spoiled Kinston's Independence Day celebration with a 10-2 victory Wednesday evening at historic Grainger Stadium.

The Blue Rocks, the Northern Division leaders, plated runs from the second through sixth innings against K-Tribe newcomer Steve Wright. In his second Carolina League start, Wright (0-1) yielded four runs on seven hits in four innings of work.

Matt Meyer, Eric Stiller and K-Tribe back-up catch Chao Kuan Wu each threw a couple of innings in relief.

Wilmington's Julio Pementel (5-3) surrendered five hits and one earned run in a six-plus innings.

Kinston avoided the shutout on Nathan Panther's fifth-inning RBI double. Wes Hodges provided a run-scoring sacrifice fly in the eighth inning as the K-Tribe endured their largest margin of defeat this season.

On Tuesday, K-Tribe right-hander Sung-Wei Tseng combined with Mike Finocchi for a 5-0 shutout of Wilmington. Tseng (3-6) claimed his third decision in his last four starts and allowed just four hits in a six-inning stint. Finocchi tossed three innings of one-hit relief for his third save.

It was Kinston's fourth shutout this season.

Meanwhile, the K-Tribe handed Blue Rock ace Rowdy Hardy (10-2) his second loss of the season. Hardy entered the game with the league's lowest ERA (1.51), but gave up five earned runs on eight hits. The K-Tribe has accounted for 10 of 21 earned runs allowed by Hardy this summer.

Stephen Head started the scoring with a two-out, third-inning single. He contributed another two-out, RBI single in the fifth to make it 2-0.

The K-Tribe added three more runs in the sixth on RBI hits from Mike Butia and Rodriguez. Rodriguez and Hodges each had two hits for the K-Tribe.

The teams conclude their three-game series tonight.