MLN Newswire - www.mlntherawfeed.com – WOODBRIDGE, Va.— The Potomac Nationals offense bounced back from a sub par
showing the night before and Erik Arnesen earned his second straight
quality start and win in an 8-6 victory over the Winston-Salem Warthogs in
front of a packed house at Pfitzner Stadium on Saturday night.

Entering the bottom of the first inning, Arnesen (2-0) and the P-Nats
found themselves down in an early 1-0 hole. Paulo Orlando dropped down a
bunt single up the third base line to lead off the game and was advanced
to second on a sacrifice bunt by Dale Mollenhauer. After John Shelby
missed on the first opportunity to get the run in by grounding out to
short, Brett Bonvechio cashed in by singling to right-center giving the
Warthogs the initial advantage.

The Nationals responded in the home half of the inning as Michael Martinez
copied Orlando with a bunt single of his own leading off the frame and
extending his season-long hit streak to 11 games. Winston-Salem starter
Matt Long (6-10) followed by walking Dan Lyons and Francisco Plasencia to
load the bases. With the infield at double play depth, Trevor Lawhorn
bounced into a 3-6-1 twin killing that enabled Martinez to score from
third to tie the game.
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Potomac would do more damage on its second opportunity with the bases
loaded in the second inning. Darryl Lawhorn led off with a base hit to
left field. Long then hit Aaron Seuss on a 0-2 pitch to put runners aboard
at first and second. Jhonatan Solano bounced a ball deep to short and beat
out the throw to first from Greg Pamil to load the bases. Martinez, who
entered the game hitting .500 (5-for-10) with the bases full, delivered
again with a two-run double down the right field line giving the P-Nats
their first lead at 3-1 and sending the announced crowd of 6,928 into an
uproar. An error by the first baseman Bonvechio and a wild pitch from Long
helped Potomac to a 5-1 advantage by the close of the inning.

A night after seeing his on-base streak end at 22 games, Andrew Lefave led
off the top of the third with his third homer with the Nationals and
fourth of the season extending the lead to 6-1.

Potomac added a pair of what would turn out to be key insurance runs in
the bottom of the fourth inning. Plasencia got the two-out rally started
with a double to left-center off of reliever Steve Spurgeon. Trevor
Lawhorn followed with a base hit to left putting runners at the corners.
Lefave again came up with a big hit, this time a RBI single to right that
just fell in front of a head-first diving Estee Harris in right field,
extending the lead to 7-1. Darryl Lawhorn capped the scoring with a solid
single through the right side of the infield making it 8-1 P-Nats.

Winston-Salem rallied for four runs in the eighth against Edulin Abreu and
added another in the ninth off of Athualpa Severino, but the Potomac
left-hander retired three straight, including the final two by strikeout,
to send the Nationals home an 8-6 winner.

Arnesen worked six innings in his second start with the P-Nats, giving up
just the lone first-inning run on five hits while striking out five and
walking only one to earn his second straight win.

After seeing their winning streak end at five games with Friday night’s
loss to Winston-Salem, Potomac responded by recording its fifth win on the
seven-game homestand. The P-Nats also matched their high-water mark on the
season at 21-games over .500 at 66-45.

The Nationals will wrap up their homestand on Sunday night in the series
finale against the Warthogs as left-hander Ross Detwiler (6-7, 5.20) takes
the mound opposite right-hander John Ely (5-11, 5.09). First pitch is
scheduled for 6:05 p.m.

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