Potomac held off a late Frederick rally to beat the Keys 6-4 in game one of a important three-game series with playoff implications. Rob Gilliam earned his first Carolina League win by tossing seven and two-thirds quality innings.
Potomac led 6-2 going into the ninth when the Keys mounted a rally. Frederick loaded the bases with a hit and a pair of walks before the Nationals could record an out. Rob Wort came in from the bullpen and allowed a hit to Mike Flacco to bring the score to 6-3 with the bases still loaded. The next batter Mike Mosby grounded into a 6-4-3 broken bat double play which plated a run bringing the Keys within 6-4. Wort struck out Garabez Rosa to secure the victory and his 11th save of the year.
The P-Nats offense chipped away against Frederick starter Kevin Gausman who was the fourth overall pick of the 2012 June Draft. Steven Souza Jr. blasted a homer deep to left to lead off the second inning for his second home run in as many days to give Potomac a 1-0 lead.
The Nationals tacked another run off Gausman in the third inning with Matt Skole hitting a double scoring Francisco Soriano.
As scheduled, Gausman (0-1) went just three innings. He took his first professional loss in four starts. He gave up five hits and two runs striking out three over 50 pitches.
The P-Nats attack continued run in the fourth then a run in the fifth. Erick Fernandez extended the lead to 3-0 with a sacrifice fly in the fourth. Souza Jr. drove another run in on a single and Potomac led 4-0 after five innings.
The Keys finally were able to score against Nationals hurler Rob Gilliam in the sixth. After allowing just two hits in the first five and a third innings, Glynn Davis, Steve Bumbry and Jeremy Nowak had consecutive hits that equaled two runs and brought the Keys within 4-2.
But a Soriano RBI double down the left field line in the bottom of the sixth brought the lead back up to three runs at 5-2. The Nationals scored again in the seventh with a two-base error scoring Kevin Keyes from second to bring the lead to 6-2.
Gilliam (1-1) got the win by tossing seven and two-thirds innings striking out eight batters while walking just one. In his longest outing of the year, Gilliam threw 100 pitches with 73 for strikes giving up two runs.
The P-Nats pounded 14 hits including three from Skole while four other players had multi-hit games. With the win, Potomac got within two and a half games of first place Wilmington with nine games remaining.
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