Woodpeckers return serve with 3-1 win over P-Nats

The Potomac Nationals (11-13, 41-50) had grown accustomed to dramatic late wins against the Fayetteville Woodpeckers (12-12, 43-50), but saw their four-game winning streak against the Astros affiliate come to a close on Sunday night as they fell by a score of 3-1.

LF Jake Adams hit a go-ahead RBI double in the eighth inning to break a long-standing 1-1 tie, and DH Michael Papierski followed with an RBI single to put the game out of reach. Potomac collected just four hits in the loss as the three-game series was evened one game apiece.

LHP Nick Raquet turned in his third quality start of the season, pitching into the seventh inning for the first time in 2019. The lefty fanned seven and allowed only one run over 6+ innings.

The Woodpeckers struck first in the bottom of the third as 2B Miguelangel Sierra singled off Raquet and scored on LF Corey Julks’ two-out RBI single. Potomac would answer immediately in the fourth, getting a leadoff double from 1B Aldrem Corredor and a two-out RBI single from C Alex Dunlap to even the score.

Raquet and RHP Shawn Dubin dueled through five innings, and RHP Brett Conine (W, 4-2) took over for the Woodpeckers in the sixth. CF Cole Freeman greeted the long reliever with a leadoff double, but was left at third in Potomac’s last significant rally of the night. Conine struck out eight over 3.2 scoreless innings to earn his fourth win.

RHP Andrew Istler (L, 0-1) inherited a leadoff walk from Raquet in the seventh and kept the game tied, but surrendered a double to CF Jacob Meyers in the eighth before giving way to RHP Jhonatan German. Adams and Papierski’s subsequent run-scoring hits turned out to be the difference in the ballgame as RHP Cesar Rosado (S, 3) finished off the P-Nats in the ninth with a one-out save.

The P-Nats can still earn a series win over the Woodpeckers on Monday night as LHP Tim Cate faces off against RHP Austin Hansen in the finale. First pitch from Segra Stadium is set for 7:00 pm, with the P-Nats Leadoff Show starting at 6:45 on potomacnationals.com or the TuneIn Radio App.