FredNats Walked Off for Second Straight Night in Hill City

LYNCHBURG, VA - The Fredericksburg Nationals were walked off for the second straight night, falling by the same score, 4-3 in Lynchburg against Hill City on Wednesday.

A turbulent night from the start, the FredNats began in the first, with a run being wiped off the board on appeal, as Yeremy Cabrera missed third base rounding on what would’ve been a Jacob Walsh RBI single. Instead, at 0-0 going to the bottom of the first, Jonah Conradt allowed three runs and exited with an injury after just 0.2 IP. Ryan Minckler stabilized for the FredNats in relief, going 2.1 innings scoreless.

In the third, the FredNats got their first runs, with home runs off the left-center field and right-center field scoreboard by Eli Willits and Yeremy Cabrera respectively. The Cabrera homer was his team leading seventh of the season. In the following inning, Nick Peoples homered over the scoreboard in right to tie the game. The offenses quieted from there, with no further runs, despite chances. The FredNats left the bases loaded in the fifth and eighth, striking out looking with two outs both times. Overall, the FredNats left 12 on base, following 10 left on in Tuesday’s game. The latter of the two innings saw Yeremy Cabrera ejected following his strike three call, with Chris O’Neill also getting tossed thereafter.

Without their manager headed to the ninth, the FredNats got the leadoff runner on with a Coy James walk, but a double play and strikeout sent it to the bottom of the ninth. Then, with Cesar Rojas entering, Yerlin Luis hit his first home run of the season on the second pitch of the leadoff at bat to win the game for Hill City.

With the loss, the FredNats have suffered their first two walk off losses on back to back nights, and their lead atop the division shrinks to one game. The FredNats have a chance to bounce back tomorrow, with a 6:30 start in game three. RHP Carson Fischer will face Hill City’s top pitching prospect RHP Joey Oakie.