The Potomac Nationals (31-35) earned a series victory with a 4-2 win against the Buies Creek Astros (35-31) on Wednesday night at Pfitzner Stadium. 1B Ian Sagdal and C Taylor Gushue drove in three of the four runs and LHP Grant Borne (W, 2-2) pitched seven strong in the win for Potomac. With the two-run triumph, the P-Nats took five wins in seven games over the final home stand of the first half.
Buies Creek jumped out first in the top of the first inning against Borne, but the left-hander quickly recovered with the help of his offense. Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the third, Potomac scored two runs against RHP Jorge Alcala (L, 1-3) to take a lead it would not surrender. CF Victor Robles began the frame with a double. The Northern Division All-Star came in to score after LF Jack Sundberg dropped down a bunt single up the third base line. Trying to throw out Sundberg, 3B Alex DeGoti overthrew first base for a throwing error which allowed Robles to score and tie the game. After a Sagdal groundout pushed Sundberg to third, Gushue gave the P-Nats a 2-1 lead with a sacrifice fly to right.
After allowing two hits in the first, Borne gave up only one more base hit over the next six frames. He finished seven strong innings allowing just the lone run in the first on three hits and two walks. He tied his season-high in strikeouts, fanning six batters as the left-hander picked up his second win of the season. Borne has now thrown two quality starts in a row and has allowed just two earned runs over his past 14 innings.
The P-Nats padded the lead with two more runs in the bottom of the fifth inning against Alcala. Once again, Robles started the rally getting hit by a pitch for a Carolina League-leading 13th time. With Sundberg batting, Alcala balked to move Robles to second and Sundberg sacrificed the Nats’ top prospect to third base. Then, Sagdal struck with a triple into the right-center field gap to easily plate the third Potomac run. Gushue followed and knocked in his 50th RBI of the season with a sharply hit liner to right that RF Pat Porter could not handle for a catching error. Sagdal’s run still counted as an RBI despite the error, since he would have scored on the sacrifice fly.
RHP Ronald Pena (S, 1) notched his first save of the year while finishing off the final two innings for Borne. The right-hander allowed a solo home run in the ninth inning but struck out three Astros in his 15th outing of the year. He got DeGoti to fly out to right to finish the game and the series with a win.
Seven different starters registered eight total hits for Potomac in the game. 3B David Masters represented the only multi-hit performance for the P-Nats recording his second multi-hit game of the series. One of his hits included his first triple of the season. The Potomac infielder now has four games with multiple hits over his past 10 games.
Potomac finishes the first half at home with a record of 18-16. After beginning the season 9-12 at The Pfitz, the P-Nats put together a 9-4 record over the last 15 home games to end the first half at home. As a team, The Red, White & Blue hit .269 at Pfitzner Stadium in the first half, scored 154 runs and clubbed 30 home runs while defending home field.
Potomac closes out the first half with a four-game series against the Carolina Mudcats at Five County Stadium in Zebulon, NC. First game is scheduled for Thursday evening at 7 pm. The P-Nats send LHP Hector Silvestre (6-2, 4.34) to the bump against RHP Cody Ponce (5-5, 3.70) for the Mudcats.
Coverage of the opener begins at 6:45 pm with the P-Nats Leadoff Show on the Potomac Nationals Baseball Network. Fans can access the broadcast using potomacnationals.com or through the TuneIn Radio or MiLB First Pitch apps.
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