Pelicans blank Potomac Nationals

By Robert Daski

Published: July 2, 2008

During his three starts prior to Wednesday’s outing, Potomac Nationals starting pitcher Jhonny Nunez was showing signs of blossoming into a quality pitcher.
He had won two games, two more than he’d won through the season’s first two and a half months.
Though he earned a no decision against Frederick on June 12, he allowed only three runs on six hits in six innings.
Nunez’s good run of pitching continued against the Myrtle Beach Pelicans on Wednesday. But it was only for five innings.
By the time the sixth inning was complete, Nunez was no longer in line for a win and the Potomac Nationals’ offense could not save him from being charged with his seventh loss and falling to 2-7.
The Nationals lost 8-0 to the Pelicans, a sour start to a six-game home stand.
“It was just one of those games where they beat us,” Potomac manager Randy Knorr said.
With Potomac trailing 2-0 entering the sixth, Nunez surrendered a single to Gorkys Hernandez, who then stole second base.
After Willie Cabrera walked, Eric Campbell’s ground ball was fielded by Nationals second baseman Brian Finegan.
But Finegan threw over the head of shortstop Dan Lyons, who was covering second base as Potomac attempted to turn a double play, and was charged with an error. The ball rolled into left field.
Had the double play been completed, there would have been a runner on third with two outs. The strikeout of the next batter, Ernesto Mejia, would have ended the inning.
Instead, Hernandez scored from second and Myrtle Beach led 3-0.
“I tried to do too much,” Finegan said. “With the runner coming close to me, I should have just tried to tag him and thrown to first for the double play.”
Brandon Hicks tripled to score Cabrera and Campbell.
Tyler Flowers walked. A ground ball hit by Travis Jones was fielded by Lyons deep in the hole. He threw to first to get the out, but Hicks scored to give the Pelicans a 6-0 lead.
Flowers advanced to second on the Jones groundout and scored on Concepcion Rodriguez’s two-run home run.
Though Myrtle Beach’s offense took a while to get going, Potomac’s offense never got going.
Even after scoring 27 runs in wins over Kinston on Monday and Tuesday, the Nationals (9-4 second half, 51-32 overall) managed only four hits against Pelicans starting pitcher Ryne Reynoso and relievers Brett Butts and Michael Broadway.
When Potomac put runners on base, its hopes for scoring were crushed in the first and fourth when its hitters grounded or lined into a double play.
Misfortune continued in the eighth when Brian Peacock flew out and Finegan struck out, leaving Aaron Seuss stranded at second base.
“You can score 20 runs one day and not score any the next,” Finegan said. “You try and have quality at-bats. Everything we hit [on Wednesday night] was right at them. Everything we hit in Kinston fell down.”