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Potomac sweeps two from Blue Rocks

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potomac nationalsThe Potomac Nationals (57-64-Overall, 28-33-Road, 24-27-Second Half) blanked the Wilmington Blue Rocks (55-66-Overall, 33-25-Home, 17-34-Second Half) 5-0 in Game One of the scheduled twin bill tonight and then followed up with a sweep 4-2 in the nightcap on Tuesday night from Frawley Stadium.

RHP Reynaldo Lopezgot the nod for Game One against the Rocks and he only pitched three innings but he allowed just one hit and it was an infield single by DH Carlos Garcia. On the play Lopez appeared to tweak something and despite throwing some practice pitches to make sure it wasn’t anything serious he remained in the game to finish out the bottom of the third but he did not come back out for the fourth. Lopez recorded five strikeouts before departing.

Potomac, against LHP Matthew Strahm (1-4, 3.25) took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the third of the seven inning contest. Washington Nationals LF Reed Johnson, continuing his rehab appearance with Potomac, hit a solo home run off Strahm to give the P-Nats the advantage.

The Nationals added a run in the top of the fifth inning against Strahm when C Zach Wright led-off the inning with a walk. 3B David Masters grounded out, moving Wright to second base and CF Rafael Bautista moved him to third with an infield single. RF Narciso Mesa picked up the RBI with a sacrifice bunt bringing home Wright for a 2-0 lead.

Strahm logged five innings for Wilmington, taking the loss and giving up two runs (earned) on four hits, a walk and he struck out five.

RHP Robinson Yambati entered in relief of Strahm in the sixth.

RHP Brian Dupra (2-0, 3.27) came in for Lopez in the fourth and continued the scoreless stretch for the Nationals, logging four scoreless frames to close out the eventual 5-0 win, Dupra gave up only one hit and walked one and struck out four.

The Nationals in the top of the seventh hit Yambati around, scoring three times to put the game away. 2B Khayyan Norfork reached on an error to begin the inning. Wright laced a ground ruled double that bounced over the left field wall that pushed Norfork to third base and then Masters hit a sacrifice fly to left field to make it a 3-0 lead. Mesa followed with an RBI triple and then scored himself on a wild pitch by Yambati for the 5-0 score.

Game Two saw RHP Tyler Mapes (4-2, 2.51) make a spot to start, his fifth of the year for Potomac. Mapes earned the win, pitching six innings. Wilmington scored one run against Mapes on five hits, a walk and Mapes struck out five in the win.

In the backend ballgame the Blue Rocks sent RHP Jakob Junis (4-10, 3.70) to the hill. Potomac took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Bautista began the game with a single. A Junis wild pitch moved him to second base and he scored on 1B Grant DeBruin’s RBI single.

C Craig Manuel doubled with one out for Potomac in the second inning and he scored on Masters RBI single for a 2-0 lead.

Wilmington plated a run against Mapes in the bottom of the third. CF Dominique Taylor singled with one out and then Garcia doubled. SS Humberto Arteaga knocked in Taylor with an RBI ground out to cut the lead in half at 2-1 Nationals.

The last two runs for Potomac came in the top of the fourth when Norfork blasted a home run over the left field wall to 4-1 Nats’. For Norfork, it was his second long ball of the season.  RHP Derek Self (SV 1) inked his first save of the season, pitching the ninth inning and giving up one run. A lead-off walk to LF Alfredo Escalera began it and Self then fired back-to-back wild pitches to moved Escalera all the way to third. It was the C Santiago Nessy who brought home Escalera with another RBI ground out to make it 4-2 Nationals. That was as close as Wilmington got, falling in both games of the twin bill to Potomac.

The series continues tomorrow night from Frawley Stadium with a 635 pm first pitch and RHP Ian Dickson (2-2, 3.81) will make the start for the Nationals against RHP Pedro Fernandez (0-3, 8.78) for Wilmington.

The tune in to live coverage of Potomac Nationals baseball starting a 6:20 pm with “P-Nats Lead-Off Show” kicking the broadcast off.

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