Fredericksburg Nationals, buoyed by late homer, defeat Charleston, 2-1

The Fredericksburg Nationals continued their winning ways, thanks to a late home run, taking down the Charleston Riverdogs, 2-1, on Wednesday.

Offense was at a premium in Game 2 this week, as neither team scored until the top of the sixth inning. For the Riverdogs, the Low-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays, Marcus Johnson got the start and was extremely effective. He spun six shutout innings, while allowing just a pair of base hits.

Fredericksburg, the Low-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals, got four spotless innings from Bryan Sanchez, and a scoreless fifth from Juan Abreu before Charleston got on the board.

Carlos Colmenarez led off with a walk, and Dominic Keegan doubled to put runners on second and third with no outs. Abreu got Xavier Isaac to roll over to second base, but it was enough to plate Colmenarez with the first run of the evening. But Abreu buckled down, and fanned two batters to strand Keegan at third base.

The Nats got a one-out single from Sammy Infante, then a walk from Geraldi Diaz. Both men stole a bag, to put runners on second and third with one out. Branden Boissiere got the game tied with an RBI groundout to first base, to drive Infante in.

After a scoreless eighth inning from Pedro Gonzalez, Paul Witt struck again. With one out in the bottom half, Witt blasted a pitch out to the home run porch in left field to give the Freddies a 2-1 lead.

Gonzalez breezed through a 1-2-3 ninth inning, to secure a 2-1 win for Fredericksburg.

It was the third win of the year for Pedro Gonzalez, while Alex Cook suffered the loss.

In Game 3 between the Nats and the ‘Dogs on Thursday, Bryan Caceres takes on Jonny Cuevas.