Devers Tosses Gem, Pelicans Split Friday Games with Nationals

The Birds shutout the Nationals for the third time this week in game four of the series

By Sam Weiderhaft

Friday night was a packed one at Pelicans Ballpark as the Myrtle Beach Pelicans and Fredericksburg Nationals finished Thursday’s suspended game and played a 7-inning game following games three and four of the series. Fredericksburg won their first game of the series 9-1 in the suspended game while Myrtle Beach shut out the Nationals for the third time this week with a 3-0 victory in the following game. With the win in game two, the Pelicans moved up to 43-18 while their magic number to clinch the Carolina League South first-half championship dropped to four. The Nationals' record stands at 31-30 after Friday’s games.

Game One: Fredericksburg spread nine runs across three innings on the suspended game that was completed on Friday. Myrtle Beach collected just four hits with Josue Huma (1-3, RBI) providing the only offense with an RBI single in the eighth inning.

Porter Hodge (4-2) took the loss with two runs, one earned across his four innings off three hits and three walks. Hodge also struck out five in the defeat while the Pelicans’ defense committed two errors.

The Nationals turned nine hits into nine runs with the big one coming from J.T. Arruda (3-3, 4 RBI, 2 R, BB) with a three-run homer in the fifth inning. Arruda also came a triple shy of the cycle Fredericksburg’s first win of the series. Steven Williams (3-4, 2B, 2 R) also collected a three-hit performance.

The win went to Bryan Pena (2-1) in his 3 2/3 innings with just one earned run allowed. Jackson Rutledge started the game and retired the first 10 Pelicans batters as he lasted four shutout innings with just one hit allowed and four strikeouts.

Game three began on Thursday as the Nationals scored two in the top of the second off Hodge. Arruda singled to right with two runners on for his first RBI hit and stole second during the next at-bat. As Arruda stole, catcher Ethan Hearn tried to catch Branden Boissiere at third base but his throw went wild into left field. Boissiere scored on the throwing error to make it 2-0 Nationals.

The fifth inning took two days to complete as the Nationals plated two on Thursday from an RBI groundout by Sammy Infante and a single by Branden Boissiere. Lightning and rain paused the game and causes a suspension into Friday.

At 5:35 on Friday evening, the game continued as Angel Gonzalez came in to pitch for the Pelicans. On his second pitch, Arruda drove a three-run homer over the right-center field wall to blow the game open 7-0.

Two more runs came in the top of the eighth as T.J. White scored on a balk with runners on second and third and Viandel Pena hit into a fielder’s choice as Arruda scored.

Down 9-0, the Pelicans avoided the shutout in the bottom of the eighth on an RBI infield single by Huma to plate Wetzel.

Game Two: Despite being outhit, the Pelicans cruised to a 3-0 win in seven innings. It was the Pelicans’ eighth shutout victory of the season. Huma (1-2, HR, RBI) crushed his first homer of the season on a solo shot in the third and Ezequiel Pagan (1-3, 2 RBI) brought in two on a single in the fifth.

It was a career night for Luis Devers (8-3) who tied his career-high with nine strikeouts across his six-shutout innings. Devers didn’t walk anyone and sacrificed only five hits. Alfredo Zarraga notched his second save of the year by closing out the seventh.

Infante (2-3) led the Nationals in hitting with the only multi-hit game. Fredericksburg collected five hits, all being singles in the loss.

Starting pitcher Dustin Saenz (2-1) took the loss after sacrificing the home run in his three innings pitched.

After Saenz retired the first nine batters, Huma crushed a 1-1 pitch to left field for his first home run of the season to make it 1-0.

As Devers was cruising, the Pelicans added two more in the fifth when Pagan hit a fly ball to left field with two runners on. The ball fell behind Yoander Rivero at shortstop and in front of T.J. White in left field to plate two and extend the Birds’ lead to 3-0.

Myrtle Beach and Fredericksburg will head into the weekend with a 6:05 p.m. first pitch on Saturday night.