FredNats open week-long series with 11-2 win over Lynchburg

The Fredericksburg Nationals kicked off their week on the road with an 11-2 win over the Lynchburg Hillcats on Tuesday.

Marcus Brown opened the scoring for the Nats, the Low-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals, in the top of the second inning. After a Roismar Quintana walk and a single by Max Romero Jr., Brown doubled down the left field line to plate Quintana with the first run of the game.

Then in the third, Dylan Crews reached on an infield single, and Yohandy Morales doubled to put two men in scoring position. Andrew Pinckney capitalized with a two-run double, giving Fredericksburg a 3-0 lead.

Quintana doubled later in the frame, to make it 4-0.

Lynchburg, the Low-A affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians, got on the board in the home half of the fifth, after they had been held to one hit up until then. A pair of walks put two men aboard with two outs, when Robert Lopez doubled to right field, cutting the FredNats lead to 4-2.

In the top of the seventh, the Nats broke the game open. Roismar Quintana led off with a single, and Armando Cruz also found a base hit with two outs. Elijah Nunez then walked, to load the bases. Dylan Crews took ball one, before blasting a grand slam the other way to right center field, to put Fredericksburg up 8-2.

Andrew Pinckney tacked on another run in the eighth on his second career home run, and a Marcus Brown double pushed the lead to 10-2. Later in the same inning, an E5 allowed Brown to score and make it an 11-2 lead for the Freddies.

Franklin Marquez closed things out with two shutout frames.

Pedro Gonzalez improved to 5-2 with the win, and Lynchburg’s Austin Peterson suffered his sixth loss this year.

In Game 2 tomorrow night, Luke Young toes the slab against Abel Brito.