Wilmington, DE The Wilmington Blue Rocks put forth perhaps their finest combined pitching effort all year, yet saw their season come to a conclusion Friday night. Boomer Whiting knocked in the game's lone run with a third-inning sac fly and the Potomac Nationals finished off a sweep of the Blue Rocks with a 1-0 victory in Game Three of the Carolina League Northern Division Championship Series. Everett Teaford (pictured) and two relievers held the Nationals to just two hits, but the Rocks offense managed just four and stranded 12 runners. It is the second year in the row that Wilmington has been swept in a first-round series.

Teaford (0-1) tied a season and career-high with nine strikeouts and walked one batter over seven stellar frames. One of the two hits the lefty gave up was a ground-rule double by Michael Burgess leading off the third inning. After a sac bunt moved him to third, Burgess came plateward on Whiting's fly ball to left field. Whiting, who scored both walk-off runs in the first two games, undoubtedly was the most valuable player in the series on both teams.

Chris Chavez and Ben Swaggerty combined to face the minimum over the final two innings.

But, Wilmington's offense was not equal to the lofty performance of the pitching staff. The Blue Rocks were 11-for-83 (.133) and scored just three runs in 25 innings over the first two games of the series. On Friday, the Rocks loaded the bases in three separate innings, yet came up empty each time en route to stranding eight men in scoring position.

The Blue Rocks loaded the sacks with two outs against Ross Detwiler in the first, but Kurt Mertins grounded out to second base. In the sixth, a one-out single by Brad Correll and back-to-back walks loaded the bases again and chased Detwiler from the game. Atahualpa Severino came on and got Josh Johnson to fly out to shallow right and then fanned Jeff Howell. A leadoff bunt single by Jarrod Dyson in the seventh was the genesis of another Wilmington rally. But, with two outs and the bases full, Severino struck out Jeff Bianchi looking.

Osvaldo Rodriguez and Josh Wilkie navigated the P-Nats through a bumpy eighth and then Wilkie set the Rocks down 1-2-3 in the ninth for the save.

A Blue Rocks nemesis on the regular season, Detwiler (1-0) went 5.2 innings and gave up just two hits with five walks and four strikeouts. In four starts versus Wilmington during the year, the southpaw went 2-0 with a 1.38 ERA and held the Rocks to a .200 batting average.

Despite the disappointing finish, Wilmington can take pride in making the Carolina League postseason for the 13th time in 16 seasons. The club also led the league in attendance for the 11th straight season by drawing 312,375 fans to Frawley Stadium.