The Potomac Nationals (18-13, 9-7) dropped a heartbreaker to the Myrtle Beach Pelicans (21-12, 14-4) in Game Two on Friday night in 11 innings as the Pelicans swatted four home runs after the 8th inning to earn a 7-5 triumph.
The Nationals are now (2-3) head-to-head against Myrtle Beach in 2014.
Potomac suffered their first three-game losing streak of the season with the loss.
Myrtle Beach takes a two game lead in the four game set thanks to their fourth consecutive victory.
Pelicans RHP Sam Wolff gunned through 7.0 innings and allowed three earned runs on five hits while walking two and striking out a pair.
Nationals RHP Dakota Bacus dealt 5.1 innings and surrendered just one earned run on four hits. Bacus walked three and fanned five.
Neither starting pitcher received a decision in the second extra-inning game of the 2014 campaign for the Nationals.
Potomac is now (0-2) in games that last past the 9th frame.
The Pelicans jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the 3rd inning scoring one run on a 6-4-3 double play off the stick of 2B Christopher Bostick.
The Nationals got to Wolff with three runs in the 5th inning via a sacrifice fly from 3B Adrian Sanchez, an RBI safety squeeze bunt from C Pedro Severino, and an RBI double off the bat of CF Randolph Oduber.
Oduber belted two doubles in the contest going 3-for-5 with one run and one RBI.
The P-Nats took a 5-1 lead in the 8th inning off Pelicans LHP Will Lamb on an RBI double bashed to the gap in right center field by SS Stephen Perez and a run scoring double off the wall in left field cranked by DH Oscar Tejeda.
Perez extended his on-base streak to 16 games in the contest.
Nationals RHP Rafael Martin tossed 2.2 scoreless innings in back of Bacus.
In the top of the 9th inning, Nationals RHP Robert Benincasa imploded allowing four runs on four extra-base hits to tie the game at 5-5. Bostick’s double to the gap in right center field scored on a two-run homer from C Jorge Alfaro that ricocheted off the scoreboard in left center (Alfaro’s fourth longball of the season). This was Alfaro’s fourth extra-base hit of the series. Then, after a bloop double from LF Nick Williams in front of Oduber in center field that squeaked by the center fielder, 1B Preston Beck lofted a paint-scraping two-run bomb over the right field fence that RF Brandon Miller tried to snare as he scaled the wall. This was Beck’s second homer of the season.
In the bottom of the 9th, the Nationals loaded the bases against winning pitcher, RHP Abel De Los Santos (2-0) but he stranded them loaded by striking out Tejeda swinging after LF Justin Miller walked, Oduber singled to right center field, and Perez was intentionally walked.
The losing pitcher, Nationals RHP Gilberto Mendez (1-1) gave up back-to-back solo home runs to Williams and Beck in the 11th inning. Williams sprayed a line drive tater to the gap in left center to serve as the go-ahead run before Beck blasted a ball that negotiated the right field foul pole, his second bomb of the game and third of the season which gave the Pelicans a two-run cushion.
All of Beck’s dingers in 2014 have come against Potomac pitching.
In the last of the 11th, the P-Nats brought the game-winning run to the plate in Perez after Severino was walked on four pitches and Oduber worked a 3-2 offering for a free pass to first base. Perez flew out to center field and CF Chris Garia clenched the final out to seal the wild win for the visiting club.
Game Three will pit P-Nats RHP Ian Dickson (1-2, 5.06) against Pelicans LHP Andrew Faulkner (1-0, 1.80).
On Saturday night, Baltimore Orioles great, Scott McGregor will be signing autographs from 5:00pm to 6:00pm courtesy of the 2015 Fairfax World Police and Fire Games and a co-branded P-Nats logo baseball will be given away to the first 1,000 fans through the gates at Pfitzner Stadium.
The Potomac Nationals Baseball Network, which is accessible at www.potomacnationals.com, will broadcast Game Three of the Nationals’ series clash with the Myrtle Beach Pelicans on Saturday evening beginning with the P-Nats Leadoff Show at6:20pm before the live play-by-play at 6:35pm.
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