Fredericksburg Nationals coverage
The FredNats earned a series split Sunday in Lynchburg behind a strong start by Jose Atencio and three runs from Jared McKenzie. Fredericksburg controlled the game from the outset en route to a 4-1 victory.
McKenzie scored in the first and third on RBIs by Will Frizzell and then cruised home in the fifth on a wild pitch. James Wood followed with a home run to right to run the FredNats lead to 4-0. The blast was his second in a FredNats jersey.
The FredNats will look to salvage a series split at Bank of the James Stadium Sunday after falling 9-0 Saturday night in Lynchburg.
RHP Jose Atencio is expected to start in the Sunday matchup vs. RHP Alonzo Richardson for the Hillcats. The first pitch is slated for 5 p.m. A live audio stream of the game will be available via frednats.com/broadcast.
Jacob Young scored twice, and Sammy Infante went deep, but the FredNats fell to the Hillcats 4-3 Friday at Bank of the James Stadium in Lynchburg. The six-game series between the two sides is now tied at 2-2.
Young now stands at 99 runs scored this season. He leads both Minor League Baseball and Major League Baseball in runs scored. Aaron Judge is the only other player with 98. Young finished with three hits and reached base four times. His single in the first was his 100th hit of the year.
Rutledge allowed just three hits and retired the final 12 men he faced in a row. His previous career high for strikeouts in an outing was nine back in his rookie year in 2019. Rutledge has now won three out of his past four starts.
On offense, the FredNats got going early for the second straight night. After leading off the 2nd inning with a single, Trey Lipscomb came around to score on an RBI double from Geraldi Diaz, who narrowly missed a home run off the top of the wall.
Branden Boissiere had a home run and four RBIs and the FredNats coasted to a 9-1 win over the Augusta GreenJackets in the series finale on Sunday at Virginia Credit Union Stadium.
Bryan Caceres got the start for the FredNats for the second time in the series, and after he allowed a run in the first inning, he was lights out. He pitched five innings, allowing six hits and striking out two.
Jared McKenzie homered in his FredNat debut, James Wood had four more hits across two games, and the FredNats split tonight’s doubleheader with Augusta, winning 8-2 in game one and losing 8-7 in game two.
Branden Boissiere had the 8th and final RBI for the FredNats in the middle innings. Fredericksburg got a strong start from Jose Atencio, who earned his second win with the team after pitching five shutout innings with no walks and seven strikeouts. Augusta pushed across a couple runs late for the 8-2 final. Jacob Young reached four times in the game and scored his 90th run of the season, second in professional baseball to only Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees.
Trey Lipscomb made a big splash in his FredNat debut, smacking a three-run home run off the left field foul pole, Will Frizzell went deep twice, but it was Augusta with a 13-11 road win in a wild, back-and-forth series opener at Virginia Credit Union Stadium.
The GreenJackets wasted no time getting to the sticks as Stephen Paolini hit a leadoff homer off Bryan Caceres, the first of four runs in the 1st inning for Augusta. Justin Janas and E.J. Exposito also drove in runs in the frame for Augusta, and both were making their GreenJacket debuts after being drafted in 2022.
Two out of Down East’s three wins in the series were walk-offs. Prior to this series, Fredericksburg had not been walked off this season.
Andry Lara pitched well for the second time in the series as the starter for Fredericksburg. The top-10 Nationals prospect went 5 1/3 innings and did not allow an earned run with six strikeouts. Two unearned runs scored on Lara, and the FredNats had three total errors in the game.
Jackson Rutledge, Bryan Pena, and Cody Greenhill combined for the 6th FredNats shutout of the year Saturday at Grainger Stadium. The shutout effort, plus a two-RBI night from Steven Williams, earned the FredNats a 3-0 win and a 3-2 series edge.
Rutledge used 90 pitches in five innings to limit the Down East offense to just four hits. He struck out six while allowing just one walk. He has now gone 13 innings in his last two starts, striking out 13 and allowing just one run.
