Kevin Strohschein’s walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the 10th inning lifted the Fredericksburg Nationals to a 7-3 victory in their series opener against the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers on Tuesday night.
His one-out blast to left field was both the first grand slam in team history and the first walk-off homer at FredNats Ballpark, completing a seven-run comeback after the FredNats fell behind 3-0.
Seth Romero got the start for Fredericksburg as the lefty continued his rehab from Triple-A Rochester. In his FredNats debut, Romero struck out five batters over 1.2 innings but allowed three runs, one earned. Kannapolis took a 2-0 lead in the first on a Bryan Ramos bloop double, Jeremy De La Rosa throwing error, and a wild pitch. Victor Torres extended the Cannon Ballers lead to 3-0 in the second with an RBI single.
Mitchell Parker took over in the third and pitched brilliantly to keep the FredNats within reach. The league leader in strikeouts fanned seven over 6.0 three-hit, shutout innings in his first professional relief appearance.
The FredNats got on the board in the fifth with an RBI single from Strohschein, and scratched across two more in the seventh against Sammy Peralta to tie the game 3-3. With two outs, Geraldi Diaz and Junior Martina notched RBI singles to even the score.
Davis Moore (W, 3-0) worked a 1-2-3 top of the ninth for Fredericksburg, but McKinley Moore (L, 1-1) stranded runners at the corners for Kannapolis to do the same in the bottom half and send the game to extras. After the Cannon Ballers went in order again in the 10th, a Ricardo Méndez bunt was followed by an intentional walk to Onix Vega to fill the bases. Strohschein ripped Moore’s first pitch over the concourse in left-center field to send the FredNats to their fourth walk-off victory of the season.
The FredNats continue their series against the Cannon Ballers on Wednesday 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
