Friday night’s game in Winston-Salem was a study in opposites. Sammy Solis, the Nationals’ second-round pick and starting pitcher, had won all three of his Carolina League starts. Jake Petricka, the White Sox second rounder and Dash starter, had not won any of his four C.L. starts. The trend was reversed in the series opener: Solis struggled while Petricka cruised and the Dash pummeled the P-Nats 10-3.
Petricka (1-4) was the beneficiary of 20 Winston-Salem hits, the second most surrendered by the Nationals in 2011. Solis (3-1), meanwhile, got just two hits and one run of support in his four innings of work and allowed nine Dash hits, the most he has yielded with Potomac.
The Dash (45-53, 13-14) got to work early against Solis. A leadoff walk haunted the lefthander, who then allowed consecutive doubles to Jared Mitchell and Andy Wilkins that scored a pair of runs. Wilkins scored on Mike Blanke’s double and the Dash led 3-0 after the first.
Winston-Salem added a run in the second with a two-out rally. Tyler Saladino opened a string of three straight singles that scored Saladino and pushed the Dash lead to four.
The Nationals got on the board in the fourth, and did so in style. J.R. Higley launched a massive home run to deep left field that made it 4-1.
Solis allowed baserunners in both the third and fourth innings but kept the Dash at bay; he was lifted before the fifth for Mitchell Clegg.
Clegg was rocked for six runs on ten hits in a pair of innings, which put the game away for the Dash. Winston opened the fifth with six straight hits; the big blast was Saladino’s two-run single. In the sixth, three more consecutive hits opened the inning and became a pair of runs on a Dan Wagner groundout and a Saladino sacrifice fly.
On the night, Saladino was 3-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs scored, while Mitchell finished 4-for-5 with an RBI. Wilkins was 3-for-5 with the first three RBIs of the game.
The bottom four hitters in the Dash lineup – Juan Silverio, Nick Ciolli, Kyle Colligan and Wagner – were 0-for-8 with four strikeouts against Solis. Against Clegg, they were 8-for-8 with six runs scored and two driven in.
The Nationals got a pair of runs back in the eighth. Francisco Soriano led off the frame with a walk and moved to third on a Jeff Kobernus double. They would both score on consecutive groundouts by Destin Hood and Brian Peacock.
The Nats look to get back on track on Saturday night with Paul Demny on the mound at 7 P.M. The broadcast can be heard at www.potomacnationals.com beginning at 6:40.
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Chris Graham
