CarL1 Potomac Nationals

Willems Spectacular in 4-0 Victory over Blue Rocks

Published on May 5, 2009 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Potomac Nationals News Release


WILMINGTON- De.- Though overcast skies and steady rain have followed the P-Nats since early last week, the product Potomac has been putting on the field the last four games has been all blue skies and sunshine.

Following two consecutive rainouts, Mother Nature relented for only a short while. It was long enough, however, for the P-Nats to turn in one of their most dominating pitching performances of the season and take the series opener from the Wilmington Blue Rocks, 4-0 under drizzling skies in Delaware.

Colton Willems flashed the promise bestowed upon him when the Nationals selected him with the 22nd overall pick in 2006 by throwing five shutout innings, allowing only two hits while striking out three in earning his first victory in the Carolina League. Willems (1-0) faced only one hitter over the minimum in his five innings of work.

With Willems setting down the Blue Rocks in order nearly every inning, not much offense was needed to send the visitors home happy. Jesus Valdez led off the second inning with a single, stealing second and advancing to third on a Sean Rooney ground out. Boomer Whiting then hit a sharp grounder that third baseman Mike Moustakas made a nice play on, but he hurried his throw to first, bouncing the ball in and out of the glove of Clint Robinson allowing Valdez to score and Whiting to reach.

In the third, Francisco Plasencia led off with a walk off Blue Rocks' starter Ray Liotta (1-2) and the next batter Danny Espinosa bashed an elevated fastball off the top of the fence in left-center field for an RBI double, giving the Nationals a 2-0 lead.

A Michael Burgess RBI groundout and a Chris Marrero RBI single would round out the scoring for the P-Nats, pushing the tally to 4-0 which would be more than enough for a pitching staff who faced only 22 batters in their full seven innings of work, one over the minimum number of possible hitters faced.

Tom Milone came out of the bullpen for the first time this season, retiring all five batters he faced before Martin Beno came on to strike out Jeff Bianchi looking to end the ballgame, giving the Nationals their fourth consecutive win to push their record to 14-10, a half game behind Lynchburg in the Carolina League Northern Division.

Unfortunately, the weather only remained playable for the first game of the doubleheader as a torrential downpour began after the last out was recorded in game one, forcing yet another postponement, the third in the span of four games for the Nationals.

The rainout pushes game two back to Wednesday when the P-Nats and Blue Rocks will once again plan to play a doubleheader with the first pitch of game one slated for 5:05 ET from Frawley Stadium in Wilmington, Delaware.

You can catch all the action live on www.potomacnationals.com with Dan McGinn and Anthony Masterson with the pregame show starting at 4:40 ET.

For more information on tickets, daily promotions, and everything to satisfy your P-Nats cravings, call (703) 590-2311 or log onto www.potomacnationals.com to join the party!

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Carolina League Stories from May 5, 2009


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