P Nats Rained Out After Loss

By Will Flemming
For PotomacLocal.com

Woodbridge, Va. –– Tonight’s Potomac Nationals baseball game at home in Woodbridge has been rained out. It’s the second time this opening season week a game has been postponed due to rain.

The P Nats were scheduled to take on the Winston-Salem Dash tonight, but that game has been postponed until 6:05 p.m. Wednesday. The next game will be a doubleheader.

While hometown baseball team won’t play tonight, they came up short last night in a 7-5 loss against the Dash.

Paul Demny will make his first start of 2011 in the opening game of the twinbill against Joe Seraphin. Today marks the Nationals’ second rainout in the season’s first four days.  Following the doubleheader, the Nats have an off day before they travel to Wilmington for a three-game weekend set.

Rick Hague slugged a two-run home run and Destin Hood went 2-3 with two doubles, but Potomac in front of the crowd of just over 1,000 at the Pfitzner Stadium in Woodbridge on Monday night.

The P-Nats drop to 1-2 and the Dash move to 3-1.

Cameron Bayne was dominating for the Dash. The starter went seven innings pitched, allowing only one hit and no runs. Potomac didn’t pick up its first hit until Destin Hood roped a double down the left field line in the bottom of the seventh inning. Bayne walked Hood back in the second inning, so the perfect game was never really in play.

The P-Nats’ bats woke up as soon as, Bayne, a Hawaii native left the game. The first three batters all reached base in the bottom of the eighth, and Potomac pushed across its first run on a Cutter Dykstra single to score Stephen King.

Eury Perez followed with a RBI fielder’s choice to make it a 5-2 game. That’s when Hague launched his two-run, opposite field shot, cutting the lead to one heading into 9th.

But the Dash answered with two runs in the top of the ninth. Winston-Salem loaded the bases with two walks and a single, and then scored both runs on groundball by Ian Gac that slipped through the legs of shortstop Rick Hague and into left field, giving the Dash a 7-4 lead.

The two insurance runs ended up being critical, because Cutter Dykstra hit a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth that would have tied the game at five, but instead made it 7-5.

Nationals’ starter Marcos Frias was the tough-luck loser. The righty allowed one run and four hits in six innings pitched. He also struck out two and walked one.

As for Tuesday’s rained-out game, fans with tickets can redeem them for another 2011 game by calling the Potomac National’s ticket office at 703-590-2311.

Will Flemming is the Director of Broadcasting for the Potomac Nationals.