WOODBRIDGE, Va. –– It took the Potomac Nationals 93 games to secure their first 1-0 victory in 2011. It took them one to get their second. With a shutout win on Tuesday afternoon, the Nationals won their seventh game in eight tries and set up an opportunity to earn their sixth consecutive series win in the finale on Wednesday evening.
Potomac has now won 11 of their past 15 at Pfitzner Stadium and reached the .500 mark in home games at 22-22.
The matinee affair was eerily similar to Monday night’s ballgame. Potomac’s starter Adam Olbrychowski (3-5) worked out of early trouble and out-dueled his counterpart, Lynchburg righthander David Hale(1-4). The Nationals got a big hit in the early innings, relied on a trio of bullpen arms to shut down the Hillcats and prevent them from getting a single hit in 13 tries with runners in scoring position.
In each of the first two innings, Lynchburg roped an extra-base hit with less than two outs; Andrelton Simmons tripled with one out in the first and Christian Bethancourt doubled to open the second. On both occasions, Olbrychowski retired the remaining hitters and established a troubling trend for the Hillcats (38-57, 8-17).
In the third, the Nationals (45-49, 16-9) got the only run they would need. Eury Perez singled to open the inning and moved to third on Francisco Soriano’s double. After Jeff Kobernus flied out to center, Destin Hood hit a ball up the middle. Hale deflected it with his glove; it caromed to the third base side and allowed Perez to score the first and last run of the contest. It was Hood’s 58th RBI, the third most in the Carolina League.
Olbrychowski settled in, facing the minimum from the third through the fifth innings. He was removed from the game in the sixth after a one-out double and a walk; Neil Holland retired the next two hitters to escape the first of three consecutive jams.
In the seventh, Joe Testa inherited two runners but retired two straight hitters. In the eight, Josh Smoker came on with two on and one out and got a pair of fly outs to keep Potomac ahead. Smoker then worked around a walk and a hit batter with a pair of strikeouts and a game-ending groundout to earn his first save.
In the end, Hale went all eight innings and allowed nine hits with three strikeouts.
The clubs will close out the series on Wednesday night at 7:05 p.m. Danny Rosenbaum takes the mound for Potomac against Zeke Spruill.
-Will Flemming
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