Lynchburg Sweeps the First Double-Header against Potomac

The Potomac Nationals have now lost six straight games, including five at Pfitzner Stadium, and that prompted a stern message from Manager Matt LeCroy after their games against Lynchburg Saturday. 

“I want guys to expect to win every game that they play,” LeCroy said. “They have to figure out, as a group, how to win these ballgames, especially these short ones, and at the end of ballgames – seventh, eighth, and ninth innings – we’ve got to find a way to win it. We’ve had a hard time doing that the last week.” 

The Lynchburg Hillcats erased an early 1-0 deficit to defeat the Potomac Nationals 7-2 in the second game of a double header Saturday at Pfitzner Stadium. 

Destin Hood hit a solo shot deep to center field in the first inning to put the Nationals on top, but they were hard-pressed to push another run across, leaving two more men in scoring position during the course of the game before scoring in the seventh. 

“The second game [of the double header], to me, was bad,” Nationals Manager Matt LeCroy said. “I didn’t feel like we fought as hard as we possibly could.” 

Nationals starter Paul Demny lasted four innings, but surrendered six runs on six hits and allowed four walks, falling to 1-5 on the season. He gave up two home runs in the third inning – a two run blast to left by Braeden Schlehuber and a solo shot by Kyle Davis that just barely got over the fence. 

LeCroy said that the amount of games being played this weekend forced him to stick with Demny longer than he would have otherwise in order to keep all of his pitchers rested. 

Demny also gave up three runs in the third inning. A wild strikeout pitch to Braeden Schlehuber with the bases loaded and two out proved costly. Schlehuber reached first safely and Joseph Terdoslavich scored for the Hillcats. 

The Nationals made it interesting in the seventh when Steven Souza scored with nobody out on a throwing error by Lynchburg second baseman Kyle Davis to cut the lead to five. But the threat ended there, as Justino Cuevas flew out to center and Cutter Dykstra grounded into a double play. 

Joe Leonard went 1-1 and scored three times for Lynchburg. He walked in his first three at bats before recording a one-out single in the sixth inning. 

Dan Jurik only faced four batters above the minimum while recording five strikeouts. He pitched four innings and only gave up the home run to Hood and one other hit, but did walk three batters. He picked up his first win of the season and lowered his ERA to 2.08. 

The Hillcats also beat the Nationals 10-5 in the first game of the double header Saturday. Nationals starter Trevor Holder lasted just one and two-thirds innings and surrendered eight runs. The Nationals mounted a fifth inning rally, but fell short. 

“That’s the way baseball is,” LeCroy said. “When things aren’t going that good, they beat down on you.” 

The Nationals are now 10 games behind Wilmington for the Carolina League Northern Division lead with just 23 games remaining in the first half of the season. Potomac could still qualify for the playoffs if they win the division in the second half of the year. 

The games were shortened from nine innings to seven because of the double header. 

The Nationals can still split the series with wins tomorrow in the second double header, which begins at 12:05 at Pfitzner. Cameron Selik will pitch the first game for Potomac. 

“Good, bad, ugly, it doesn’t matter,” Destin Hood said. “We’re going to stick together.”