Woodies Can't Keep Pace with Nationals

KINSTON, NC - A seesaw affair early turned to a wider margin in Potomac's (11-19, 44-56) victory over Down East (14-18, 28-63) in a 7-3 final on Tuesday. Four different Wood Ducks had multiple hits as 11 knocks were not enough in the loss.

Carlos Garay extended his team-leading hit streak to 14 games with a 2-for-5 night. Luis La O now has 10 hits in his last 23 at-bats as well. Evan Van Hoosier and Yanio Perez added the other multi-hit efforts.
Woodies starter Brett Martin completed five innings and took the loss scoring allowing four runs in the first four innings. He struck out three while throwing 70% of his pitches for strikes.
Down East came from behind early to tie the game 1-1 in the second thanks to a Ledarious Clark single. After the Nationals responded with a run in the third the Woodies took the lead away with four straight hits and RBIs from Ti'Quan Forbes and Van Hoosier.
Yet the P-Nats still responded in the fourth with two more runs to take the lead back. In both games this series, the Wood Ducks have not recorded a shutdown inning.
Steven Bruce was the first reliever for the Woodies but the Nationals were prepared for him. They clocked four hits with three for extra-bases in his inning and two-thirds. A bright spot came with Tyler Ferguson working two and a third innings scoreless with the only base runner reaching on an error against the righty.
The Wood Ducks look to avoid the sweep on Wednesday morning at 11:00 a.m. Lefty Wes Benjamin (6-6, 4.38) will face right-hander Austen Williams (1-2, 1.93) in the finale. You can listen to every pitch of the 2017 season live on Sports/Talk 960 The Bull or streamed on the TuneIn Radio app.