High Flying Finish at the Pftiz

By Robert Daski

Published: September 11, 2008

Jhonatan Solano scampered around the bases, slapped the hand of third base coach and Potomac Nationals manager Randy Knorr, touched home plate emphatically and pointed two fingers to heaven.

His teammates came out of the dugout to high-five him for he had tied game three of the Mills Cup series at seven with a three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning.

He smacked the first pitch he saw from Pelicans reliever Ferdin Tejeda over the left field fence and sent the 1,373 Pfitzner Stadium fans into euphoria.

"It was a fastball down the middle," said Solano, who received hugs from teammates and pitching coach Randy Tomlin in the clubhouse. "I waited for the pitch and wanted to make good contact. I don't know how I did it."

The momentum on their side, the Nationals scored the winning run in the bottom of the 10th to beat Myrtle Beach 8-7 when Michael Burgess walked with the bases loaded to bring home Dee Brown.

Burgess refused to swing at the first three pitches from Pelicans relief pitcher Brett Butts.

With the count 3-0, Butts threw a strike before issuing ball four.

"I was going to keep taking pitches until I got two strikes," Burgess said.

The Nationals lead the best-of-five series 2-1 and will win their first Mills Cup since 1989 should they win game four, set for tonight at Pfitzner at 7:05 p.m.

"That's a good team," Knorr said of Myrtle Beach. "We can't lay down. We've got to play our game, not make mistakes and have timely hitting."

Josh Wilkie earned the win in relief. He held Myrtle Beach scoreless in the ninth and 10th innings and recorded two strikeouts.

Nationals starting pitcher Ross Detwiler pitched well. He tied a season-high with nine strikeouts.

But the double he surrendered to Concepcion Rodriguez to start the fifth and the ball Detwiler threw that plunked Gorkys Hernandez proved costly.

Both those runners scored to tie the game at four.

The Myrtle Beach Pelicans scored two more runs in the sixth to lead 6-4.

Brandon Hicks led off with a single and went to third on Rodriguez's double.

Hicks scored on Phillip Britton's groundout.

Rodriguez, who took third on the groundout, scored on Hernandez's double.

Prior to the fourth inning, Detwiler showed signs of dominance. He retired the first eight batters he faced, five via strikeout.

He was, however, victimized by a two-run third inning.

Detwiler walked the first batter, Britton. Britton went to third on Hernandez's double.

Willie Cabrera's double scored both and the game was tied 2-2.

Potomac reclaimed the lead in the bottom of the third on a two-run home run by Michael Martinez.

After Myrtle Beach went ahead 6-4, Hicks gave his team a 7-4 advantage with a solo home run in the top of the eighth.

Myrtle Beach relief pitcher Jeff Lyman retired Potomac's hitters in order in the sixth.

Lyman worked out of a two-on, one-out seventh inning jam when he forced Dan Lyons to bounce into a six-four-three double play.

Pelicans reliever Tyler Wilson forced Martinez to fly out, Andrew Lefave to ground out and struck out Brown in the eighth.