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CarL1 Potomac Nationals

Potomac Nationals Win Three in Wilmington

June 5, 2011 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Potomac Nationals News Release


WILMINGTON, DE - Coming off consecutive complete-game victories, the Potomac Nationals instead leaned on a well-rested bullpen on Sunday afternoon in Wilmington and held on for a 5-4 win over the Blue Rocks to finish a series sweep. A non-conventional lineup combined for ten hits, five of them by Justino Cuevas and Brian Peacock, and four relief pitchers pushed the Nationals across the finish line for their fourth consecutive win.

With the victory, Potomac earned their first sweep of 2011 and built momentum heading into the longest homestand of the year, a 14-game affair beginning Monday.

Mitchell Clegg was in trouble early and often, but wiggled out of trouble in each of the first three innings. In each of those frames, the Blue Rocks had a runner at third base with less than two outs but failed to score. The biggest threat came right out of the gates when Wilmington loaded the bases with no outs, but Clegg struck out Tim Ferguson and got Jose Bonilla to line out to center.

In the third, Rey Navarro roped a one-out triple to left; the ball caromed hard toward center field and many of the 6,076 at Frawley Stadium hoped Navarro would be sent home in search of an inside-the-park home run. He was held at third, and thrown out at the plate when John Whittleman hit a grounder to first.

Clegg finally retired the Rocks in order in the fourth, and his offense then went to work. A one-out single from Justino Cuevas, his second hit of the afternoon, sparked the rally. Cutter Dykstra doubled to left and Cuevas scored on a fabulous hook slide. Dykstra scored on a Eury Perez triple and Perez trotted home on Jose Lozada's sacrifice fly to left.

Potomac (22-34) would not hold the lead for long, as Clegg saw his day end in the bottom of the fifth. A leadoff walk to Deivy Batista began the trouble. After a flyout by Yem Prades, the Rocks roped three straight singles, the second of which cut the lead to 3-1 and ended Clegg's outing. Josh Smoker allowed both inherited runners to score on a John Whittleman single and a Bonilla sacrifice fly. Whittleman scored when Alex McClure singled off Dykstra's glove to push Wilmington (29-26) in front 4-3.

The P-Nats answered right back with a pair of runs in the top of the sixth, and again Cuevas and Peacock were in the thick of things. A one-out walk to J.P. Ramirez was followed by three consecutive Nationals hits. Peacock doubled to put two in scoring position before J.R. Higley singled to tie the game. J.R. Higley then singled to pt the Nationals ahead - and that would prove to be the winning run.

Adam Olbrychowski worked around a pair of walks to pitch a scoreless sixth and handed the ball to Marcos Frias. Frias went to scoreless innings with three strikeouts and just one hit allowed. Hector Nelo completed the bullpen's dominance when he closed out the ninth; the lone blemish for Nelo was a two-out walk to Whitt Merrifield but a strikeout of Bonilla sealed the sweep.

The Blue Rocks struggled mightily in the clutch; they went 4-for-15 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on base.

The Nats look to make it five in a row Monday night in Woodbridge with Trevor Holder on the mound at 7:05 P.M.

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