Pelicans Silence Nationals 2-0 in Series Opener

Both teams combined for 11 hits, all singles in the contest

By Sam Weiderhaft

The Myrtle Beach Pelicans walked off the field winners for the fourth game in a row with a 2-0 silencing of the Fredericksburg Nationals on Tuesday night. With their win and a loss by the Charleston RiverDogs, the Pelicans regained their one-game lead in the Carolina League South Division standings and decreased their magic number to clinch a playoff spot to eight. The Nationals fell to 30-28 with the loss.

The Myrtle Beach bats took a backseat in Tuesday’s contest with Felix Stevens (2-3, RBI) providing the only RBI of the game and lone multi-hit performance. Kevin Alcantara (1-4) singled to extend his hitting streak to nine straight games. All five hits were singles for the Birds.

It was the sixth shutout win of the season for Myrtle Beach as Tyler Santana (6-0) took on a majority of innings out of the bullpen to collect his sixth win of the year. The right-hander tossed 5 1/3 scoreless innings with six hits allowed and a pair of strikeouts. Angel Hernandez earned his first save of the year by retiring the Nationals in order with two strikeouts in the ninth. Luke Little started his 11th game of the year and walked two through 2 2/3 innings with three strikeouts and no hits allowed.

Fredericksburg was held without a run for just the third time this season as the visitors left eight runners on and went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position. Branden Boissiere (2-4) logged the only multi-hit game with a pair of singles. The Nationals collected six hits with all of them being singles.

Andrew Alvarez (2-4) took the loss with an earned run sacrificed through his four innings. Alvarez finished with five strikeouts and three hits allowed in his relief outing. Fredericksburg committed three errors in the field throughout the game.

Myrtle Beach kicked off the scoring in the fourth inning as Stevens came up with runners on first and second. On an 0-1 pitch with two outs, Stevens grounded a ball into right-center field to bring home Matt Warkentin as the Pelicans took a 1-0 lead.

The Nationals threatened in the top of the sixth with back-to-back singles with two outs, but Santana left the inning unharmed with a strikeout on Geraldi Diaz to end the frame.

The Pelicans added one more in the bottom of the eighth as Juan Mora scored from third base on a fielding error by Sammy Infante at third. James Triantos reached first on a one-hopper that knocked off Infante’s glove to score Mora and increase the lead to 2-0.

Hernandez retired the side in order in the top of the ninth to take the win.

Myrtle Beach and Fredericksburg will meet for game two of the series on Wednesday night at 7:05 p.m.