The Fredericksburg Nationals almost pulled off their biggest comeback of the season on Wednesday night, but left the bases loaded in the ninth in a 9-7 loss to the Salem Red Sox.
Fredericksburg trailed 6-1 and 9-2 before scoring four runs in the seventh and one in the ninth. Mitchell Parker (L, 3-6) battled his way through 5.0 innings, surrendering a career-high eight hits and three home runs.
The first Salem homer came in the first, after Jaxx Groshans got the Red Sox on the board with an RBI single. Joe Davis blasted a two-run shot, his second in as many games, to put the Red Sox in front 3-0.
The FredNats answered in their half of the first with back-to-back doubles from Ricardo Méndez and Jeremy Ydens, but Salem scored single runs in each of the next three innings to stretch out their lead even further. Nicholas Northcut homered in the third and Stephen Scott homered in the fourth as Parker became the first Fredericksburg pitcher to allow three homers in one game.
Onix Vega doubled in the sixth off of Robert Kwiatkowski (W, 5-0), and scored on a groundout from Kevin Strohschein, but again in the seventh the Red Sox answered back. Dean Miller capped a two-out rally against Bryan Peña with a three-run homer to extend the Salem lead to 9-2.
Fredericksburg fought their way within striking distance, scoring four runs in the seventh on a two-run single from Ydens and a two-run homer from Vega. They rallied once more in the ninth against Cody Scroggins (S, 5), as Vega was hit by a pitch to force in a run, but the Salem closer retired the final two outs with the winning run on base to end the ballgame.
The FredNats continue their series against the Red Sox on Thursday night. First pitch from FredNats Ballpark is scheduled for 7:05, with FredNats On Deck beginning at 6:50 on the FredNats Baseball Network.
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Chris Graham
