The FredNats are one win away from the Carolina League championship series after a 7-6 victory over the Carolina Mudcats in Game 1 of the best-of-three North Divisional playoffs Tuesday night at Virginia Credit Union Stadium.
Fredericksburg jumped on Carolina starter Daniel Corniel. Brenner Cox led off the first inning with a single, and moved to second on an error at first base. One batter later, Seaver King singled to drive in Cox with the first run of the night. Kevin Bazzell moved King to third with his own base hit, before Brandon Pimentel chopped a ball through the middle to plate King, and give the Nats a 2-0 edge.
Kevin Bazzell pushed the lead to 3-0, with his RBI groundout in the bottom of the third.
FredNats starter Alex Clemmey hadn’t faced much pressure through the first three innings, but ran into trouble in the top of the fourth. The Mudcats opened the frame with a single, a walk, then an RBI single from Marco Dinges to get on the board, before another walk loaded the bases with one out. Daniel Guilarte then tied the game with a two-run single, and Yhoswar Garcia and Yophery Rodriguez each had a hit to open up a 6-3 lead for the Mudcats.
Travis Sthele closed out the fourth inning when Clemmey couldn’t finish it, and kept the FredNats within three runs through five and a half innings.
In the home sixth, two Mudcat errors helped put King at third base and Bazzell at second, before a ball off the bat of Caleb Lomavita was mishandled, and King scored to make it 6-4. With runners on the corners now, Pimentel grounded into a double play, which brought Bazzell in to score. Carolina then walked Cristhian Vaquero and Jorgelys Mota ahead of Kelvin Diaz, and he came through with a game-tying RBI single.
Sthele allowed a couple of base runners in the next half inning, but kept the game tied. All told, he fired 3 1/3 scoreless innings of relief to keep the deficit at just three runs.
Elijah Green opened the home seventh by getting hit by a pitch, then stole second base. He took third on a fly ball off the bat of King, before Bazzell’s sac fly brought him home as the go-ahead run.
Adam Bloebaum started the eighth inning for Fredericksburg but ran into some trouble, as the Nats turned the ball over to Robert Cranz, who allowed a walk, but punched out Luis Castillo to send the game to the ninth inning with the FredNats up 7-6.
Cranz stayed on for the ninth, and retired the Mudcats in order to secure the victory. Sthele (1-0) picked up the win in relief, Jesus Broca (0-1) took the loss, and Cranz earned the save.
In Game 2, Fredericksburg turns to Travis Sykora against Manuel Rodriguez Thursday at 6:30 p.m.
