FredNats drop second straight to Fayetteville, fall 6-3

FREDERICKSBURG, VA - The Fredericksburg Nationals (28-22, 58-57) lost their second consecutive game to the Fayetteville Woodpeckers (27-25, 63-55), falling 6-3 on Sunday night at Virginia Credit Union Stadium.

The FredNats got off to a strong start with an RBI triple from Luke Dickerson and a Brenner Cox solo home run in the first three innings to take a 2-0 lead. They also got a strong start from Bryan Polanco, who tossed four scoreless innings in his second outing of the week. They entered the sixth inning up by two.

That’s when things started to unravel. Victor Farias hit three batters in the sixth inning before getting pulled, as the Woodpeckers took a 4-2 lead with just one hit in the frame. Then, Fayetteville got two more runs in the seventh, with RBI from Jason Schiavone and Brandon Forrester, to take a 6-2 lead.

Jorgelys Mota launched his fourth home run of the season in the ninth inning, but it wasn’t enough, as Leomar Rosario struck out Eli Willits to win the game for the Woodpeckers. The FredNats dropped both games on the weekend, but still won the series four games to three and went 8-5 over the season’s longest homestand.

The FredNats are still in sole possession of first place by half a game and travel to Lynchburg to start a seven-game series with the first-half champion Hillcats on Tuesday.