Late homer lifts Norfolk past Jacksonville, 3-2 at Harbor Park

Jacksonville had every reason to think it had done enough. Bradley Blalock gave the Jumbo Shrimp 6.0 steady innings, Cody Morissette drove in both runs, and the game was tied late on a night when one swing was always likely to decide it.

That swing came from Creed Willems.

Willems led off the seventh inning with a home run off Zach McCambley, and Norfolk rode that shot to a 3-2 win over Jacksonville on April 11 at Harbor Park in Norfolk, Virginia. In a game built on thin margins, the Shrimp lost the one at-bat they could not afford to lose. It was the kind of defeat that stings more because the starting pitching had already done its job.

Blalock was sharp from the start. He allowed two runs on five hits and did not issue a walk, striking out four in his six innings. For a Jacksonville club trying to defend its 2025 International League and Triple-A National titles, that should have been enough to at least steal a road win. Instead, the bullpen had no margin left once the game reached the late innings.

Norfolk struck first on Weston Wilson’s two-run homer in the second. Wilson’s blast, his second homer of the season, put the Tides in front before Jacksonville answered with a rally of its own in the fifth.

Jesús Bastidas reached on an error, Ethan O’Donnell doubled, and Morissette followed with a two-run single to pull Jacksonville even at 2-2. Morissette was the lineup’s most productive bat, and his hit kept the Shrimp in a game that could have slipped away early.

But the tie did not last. Once Willems opened the seventh with the go-ahead homer, Norfolk’s relief work had the only run that mattered. Jacksonville never answered again.

The loss dropped the Shrimp to 6-8, while Norfolk improved to 5-9. It also extended a tight series that had already swung back and forth, with Jacksonville winning a 10-inning game on April 9, losing 4-2 on April 10, then taking the finale 2-0 on April 12. That kind of run only sharpens the lesson from April 11: when Blalock hands you six strong innings in a one-run game, the bullpen has to be cleaner than one misplaced pitch.