P-Nats Turn it Around in the Fourth Inning

By Will Flemming
For PotomacLocal.com

Woodbridge, Va. –– The P-Nats walked off with a 9-8 over the Salem Red Sox on Friday night at Pfitzner Stadium.

Potomac led off the bottom of the ninth inning with back-to-back bunt singles by Eury Perez and Jeff Kobernus, setting the table for Destin Hood. The P-Nats number three hitting saw consecutive curveballs and whiffed on both.

Salem reliever Dennis Neuman thought he had Hood beat, so he went back to the breaking pitch. Hood took a better hack and fouled it off. It was the righty’s way of getting his timing down. Neumann tossed a fourth-straight breaking ball and Hood hammered off the base of the wall in left-center field to score Eury Perez and win the game for Potomac.

Hood’s walk-off single was the capper to a product offensive night.

The bats caught fire in the bottom of the fourth inning, and Justin Bloxom jump-started the effort. The Kansas State product lined a double to left, which rattled Salem starter Drake Britton. Steven Souza followed with an RBI single, and Britton began to unwind. At that point, Salem led 5-2.

Brian Peacock followed with a sacrifice fly to score Souza sandwiched in between two walks to cut the lead down to 5-3.

Then came the big hit of the inning: Jose Lozada roped a double down the left field line to score J.P. Ramirez and J.R. Higley, the two batters who walked earlier in the inning. Lozada’s 12th and 13th RBI of the season tied the game at 5.

Eury Perez rounded out the inning with a base hit to score Lozada and the P-Nats led 6-5, after trailing 5-1 to start the inning.

Potomac tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the sixth, and again, it was thanks to Jose Lozada. The number nine hitter came up with Brian Peacock at second and J.R. Higley at first. Another double to left scored Peacock on a close play at the plate. As Peacock scored, Higley raced to third. Salem catcher Dan Butler tried to throw him out, but the toss got away from third baseman Kolbrin Vitek and into left fielder, allowing Higley to scamper home and give the P-Nats a lead 8-5.

Lozada went 2-4 on the night with three RBI and two doubles. The only P-Nat with more hits than Lozada was center fielder Eury Perez, who had three.

Mitchell Clegg had a tough start for Potomac, but Evan Bronson settled things down out of the bullpen. The lefty came in the top of the second inning, and threw four and third innings, allowing only one run and keeping the door for open for the P-Nats offense and Hood’s eventual game-winner.

Trevor Holder starts game two for Potomac on Saturday night. Salem counters with Junichi Tazawa. First pitch is 6:35 p.m.

Will Flemming is the Broadcast Director for the Potomac Nationals.