After dropping two on Wednesday, the FredNat offense came back to life on Thursday to take down the Salem Red Sox 8-3. Will Frizzell hit a two-run homer, and Jose Atencio pitched five innings of two-run ball in his FredNat debut to win.
A two-run home run for Frizzell to left center field in the bottom of the 1st inning put the FredNats ahead. Salem added a run in the 3rd on a sacrifice fly from Brainer Bonaci. RBIs from Paul Witt in the 4th and Yoander Rivero in the 5th made it a 3-3 ballgame, and then the FredNats scored the final five runs of the game to win 8-3.
Geraldi Diaz had a two-run double in the 5th as well, and then Frizzell drove in his third run of the game in the 6th with an RBI double off the wall. A wild pitch by Salem scored Rivero for the final tally of the game.
Atencio was solid in his debut – five innings, four hits and two earned runs with two walks and three strikeouts.
Brendan Collins pitched two innings of scoreless relief with two strikeouts, and Marlon Perez turned in his 12th straight scoreless outing out of the bullpen with the final two innings scoreless.
The two teams will continue the series Friday at 7:05 in Fredericksburg
