A night after the Potomac Nationals (66-54, 32-20) fell for the first time this season at Frawley Stadium, the Wilmington Blue Rocks (45-76, 19-34) made it two straight victories with a 7-5 win Tuesday night. It was the third straight loss for Potomac and the sixth loss in the past eight games for the P-Nats.
Potomac got off to a quick start, as the P-Nats tagged LHP Foster Griffin (W, 4-8) for three runs in the second inning. Griffin gave up 11 hits over six innings, but 10 of the 11 hits were singles. C Raudy Read led off the second inning with a single while LF Alec Keller replaced him at first base on a fielder’s choice groundout. 3B Bryan Mejia singled, which put men at the corners with one out. RF Drew Vettleson made it 1-0 with an RBI single, 1B Matt Page made it 2-0 with an RBI base hit, and DH Austin Davidson capped off the scoring in the frame with an RBI single of his own. The P-Nats had five hits in a span of six batters in the inning and led 3-0 after 1.5 innings.
The Blue Rocks got to RHP Dakota Bacus (ND) for two runs in the third inning and cut the deficit to one. 3B Mile Hill led off the frame with a walk and LF Robert Pehl followed with a single. CF Cody Jones singled with one out, which loaded the bases for 2B Austin Bailey. Bailey’s RBI groundout made it a two-run game, while 1B Samir Duenez reached on a fielding error by Page at first base, which plated Pehl and cut the deficit to one.
Shortly into the fourth inning, the Blue Rocks took the lead. RF Elier Hernandez had a one-out single and Hill followed with a two-run home run, his first home run of the season. Bacus got through the rest of the inning and allowed four runs, three earned, over four innings. Griffin meanwhile did not allow another run until the sixth inning, where an error by Bailey allowed Potomac to get back into the game. Page reached on the fielding error by the Wilmington second baseman and scored on a single by Davidson, as the P-Nats tied the game at four in the top of the sixth inning.
The tie was short lived, as RHP Neil Holland (L, 1-2) allowed three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. After the righty worked a perfect fifth frame, Holland gave up three straight extra base hits to start the bottom of the sixth. Hernandez led off with a double and Hill followed with his second two-run home run of the night. Pehl doubled and scored two batters later on an RBI double by Bailey, which ended Holland’s night. The Blue Rocks had four extra base hits in the inning after they totaled just four hits over the first five innings.
The P-Nats got a run back in the seventh against RHP Jacob Bodner, as the righty walked Read and Keller consecutively with one out. After Mejia grounded out to first base, Wilmington went back to the bullpen, as LHP Luis Rico (SV, 5) entered for Bodner. Rico’s first pitch to Vettleson went to the backstop and plated Read, though the lefty struck out Vettleson and stranded a man at third base. Rico then worked a perfect eighth inning, saw SS Osvaldo Abreu reach on an error with one out in the ninth, but he got Read to ground into a game ending double play.
Eight of the nine Potomac starters had a hit in the loss, while Page had two hits and Davidson had three. With a single in the second inning, Read extended his hit streak to seven games. Potomac held the 2-4 batters in the order hitless, but the next three, Hernandez, Hill, and Pehl, went a combined 7-9 and scored all seven of the Blue Rocks’ runs.
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Chris Graham
