The Potomac Nationals dropped game one of a four game series to the Wilmington Blue Rocks 6-2 at Frawley Stadium on Wednesday night. Potomac is 0-4 in Delaware against the Blue Rocks this season.
The Blue Rocks struck first in the second inning against Potomac starter Adam Olbrychowski. Brett Eibner tripled down the left field line and scored on a Jose Bonilla groundout to give Wilmington a 1-0 lead.
The P-Nats responded in the third inning with two runs against Blue Rocks hurler Brooks Pounders. A David Freitas one-out double scored Blake Kelso and Ricky Hague to give the Nationals a 2-1 lead. But that was the last time Potomac would score against Pounders who ended up striking out eight batters over six innings.
Wilmington tied the game 2-2 in the bottom half of the third with Cheslor Cuthbert knocking in Angel Franco in on a RBI single.
The Rocks took the lead in the fifth. Franco walked then stole second. He scored on two groundouts including an RBI 5-3 groundout from Cuthbert that made the game 3-2. Wilmington added another in the sixth with on a pair of errors that scored Roman Hernandez extending the lead to 4-2 for the Blue Rocks.
The game was put away in the bottom of the seventh with Matt Fields knocking an two-run opposite field homer off of Olbrychowski making the score 6-2 in favor of Wilmington.
Olbrychowski (4-7) took the loss tossing six and two-thirds giving up six runs with five earned. Pounders (2-2) earned the win yielding two runs in a quality start.
Potomac had many chances to score and left eight runners on base. The P-Nats stranded a runner in each of the first six innings. The Nationals were led by a three hit effort from Freitas. Wilmington pitchers struck out ten batters.
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Chris Graham
