The Fredericksburg Nationals’ 2026 season ended Thursday night at Virginia Credit Union Stadium.
Fayetteville completed a two-game sweep of the Carolina League North Division Series with an 8-1 win in Game 2, after taking Game 1 on the road Sept. 8, 4-2. The Woodpeckers advance to the league championship series against Charleston.
The loss closed a year in which the FredNats won the North Division first-half title in June, finished the regular season on a seven-game winning streak, and made the playoffs again. They swept Wilson in the final regular-season series, including a 24-2 win Sept. 4 that set a franchise high for runs scored since the team moved to Fredericksburg.
The club’s official site and recap pages list the Game 1 loss. The Game 2 result was confirmed by the league schedule, Fayetteville’s club notes, and local coverage after Thursday’s home finale.
Perry leaving after the regular season
The on-field wrap coincided with a front-office change already announced last month.
General Manager Robbie Perry is leaving the FredNats. The Fredericksburg Free Press reported Aug. 22 that Perry would depart after the Sept. 6 regular-season finale for a front-office role with Union Omaha, the USL Championship soccer club in Nebraska.
Perry has been with the franchise since 2019, when the organization was still transitioning from Prince William County to Fredericksburg. He started as vice president of creative services, became interim GM in 2023 after Nick Hall left, and was named permanent GM that July. He oversaw business operations through the team’s early years at Virginia Credit Union Stadium, a 2024 Carolina League championship, the 2025 sale to Diamond Baseball Holdings, and this season’s first-half title.
Diamond Baseball Holdings bought the club from the Silber family in 2025. Seth Silber remains president and a minority owner. The sale announcement at the time said DBH would keep the existing front office, then led by Perry.
No successor has been named publicly in the days since the playoffs ended.
Other recent moves
On the field staff, 2026 was the first season for manager Chris O’Neill, hired in the offseason after two years as a hitting coach and recruiting coordinator at VCU. O’Neill’s staff included several coaches new to the Washington organization. Local coverage in early July noted the first-half title under the new skipper.
Ticket-office additions listed on the team’s front-office page include James Kaplan, who joined in September 2025 as director of ticket sales after work at Virginia Tech and Rutgers, and Charlie Belman, a Fredericksburg native who joined in November 2025 as a ticket sales account executive after a RiverDogs internship.
Late-season roster movement followed the usual Single-A pattern. In late August the Nationals assigned several pitchers from the Florida Complex League to Fredericksburg and moved others up to High-A Wilmington, including right-handers Gus Hughes, R.J. Sales, and Adam Boucher. First-round pick Eli Willits, who opened the year in Fredericksburg, had already been promoted to Wilmington after the first-half clinch.
