MLN Newswire - www.mlntherawfeed.com -

WOODBRIDGE, VA – Starting pitcher John Ely guided the Winston-Salem Warthogs to a 5-0 win over the Potomac Nationals on Sunday night to split the four-game series at Pfitzner Stadium.  Selected by the Chicago White Sox in the 3rd round of the 2007 draft, Ely tossed six shutout innings while limiting the Nationals to four hits.  The right-hander struck out five and did not allow a walk in collecting his third consecutive win.  He has been the starting pitcher in the last three Warthogs shutouts with the previous occurrence coming against Salem on July 24.

 Winston-Salem grabbed an early lead with a pair of runs in the first inning of Ross Detwiler.  Paulo Orlando and John Shelby both singled with one out.  After a double steal moved the runners to second and third, C.J Retherford lined a double off the base of the right field wall to put the Warthogs in front 2-0.

 Winston-Salem tacked on a run in the fifth inning when Joe Persichina singled and advanced to second base on

a ground out.  With two outs, Retherford floated a run-scoring single to center that plated Persichina for a 3-0 Warthogs lead.

 The Warthogs manufactured an unearned run in the seventh inning off Nationals reliever Jack Spradlin.  Francisco Hernandez led off with single and went to second on a sac bunt by Adam Ricks.  Next, Orlando rolled an infield single to third base that was thrown away by Darryl Lawhorn, which allowed Hernandez to score from second.  Freddie Thon added an RBI single in the eighth inning to give the Warthogs a 5-0 advantage.

 The bullpen took it the rest of the way as Ricky Brooks worked two hitless innings for the Warthogs and Henry Mabee worked a scoreless ninth to preserve the shutout.  Detwiler, the first round pick (6th overall) of the Washington Nationals in 2007, went six innings and allowed three runs on six hits to suffer the loss.  The southpaw walked two and struck out seven.

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