Fredericksburg Nationals blow out Delmarva Shorebirds, 10-1

The Fredericksburg Nationals tied their largest margin of victory of the season on Friday with a nine-run victory over the Delmarva Shorebirds, 10-1.

Max Romero Jr. had four hits and three RBI, and Brad Lord pitched five shutout innings in his start to earn this third win of the year.

Fredericksburg, the Low-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals, opened the scoring in the third inning when Daylen Lile drove in Johnathon Thomas with a sacrifice fly, Lile’s 46th RBI of the year. The FredNats then scored three runs in the top of the sixth inning against Delmarva reliever Albert Vega.

After Lile tripled to open the frame, he was driven in two pitches later by Sammy Infante. The RBI was Infante’s 25th of the year. Romero drove in his first run of the game with an RBI groundout, and then Cortland Lawson knocked an RBI single into right center field with two outs and two strikes to make it 4-0 FredNats.

Romero added his second RBI in the eighth on an opposite-field double to score Branden Boissiere to make it 5-0. Delmarva’s Randy Florentino homered in the eighth for the only run of the game for the Shorebirds, the Low-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles, and then the floodgates opened for Fredericksburg in the ninth.

Lile drove in two more runs with a broken bat single to open the scoring in the ninth, which was followed by RBI groundouts from Boissiere and Roismar Quintana. Romero put the final touches on the best offensive night of his young career with a bloop single to left that scored Sammy Infante to make it 10-1.

Lord (3-0) pitched five scoreless innings, allowing just three hits with two strikeouts. He was followed by Kevin Rodriguez, who allowed the homer to Florentino but pitched three solid relief innings with three strikeouts and no walks for his third hold of the year. Matt Merrill finished the game off by striking out the side in the 9th.

The FredNats have won three out of the first four games in the series with the Shorebirds, and will go for the series win tomorrow night with Jarlin Susana (0-4, 3.18 ERA) on the mound. He faces off against Delmarva righty Moises Chace (4-2, 5.63 ERA).

First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.