P-Nats blow late lead, lose in 14th

On a rainy night at Pfitzner Stadium, the Wilmington Blue Rocks defeated the Potomac Nationals 6-3 in 14 innings.

Ernesto Mejia’s two-run triple gave the Blue Rocks a two-run lead. He scored Wilmington’s third run of the 14th on a wild pitch.

The Blue Rocks’ victory pulls them within a half game of Potomac (30-25 second half) in the race for the Northern Division’s second half title.
Wilmington is now 30-26 with its victory.

“It’s tough,” Nationals third baseman Dan Lyons said. “Then again, it’s a long season. There’s games where we’ve come back in the end. So you take the good with the bad. We’ll shake it off and come back [on Tuesday].”

It was an evening in which Wilmington’s projected starter was Aaron Crow, the right-handed pitcher whom the Washington Nationals chose with the top selection in the 2008 draft.

But Crow never signed with Washington and Kansas City chose him in last year’s draft.

Crow, however, was scratched from his start and left-hander Ivor Hodgson started instead.

Hodgson allowed three runs on four hits, but struck out seven in five innings.

“He did great,” Crow said. “He was spot starting. He hadn’t started a game since I’ve been here. He came in from the bullpen late and he was outstanding. It was a good job pitching.”

One could not have imagined the game going to extra innings during the early part.

Nationals starting pitcher Danny Rosenbaum limited Wilmington to one run on one hit through six innings.

The only hit, however, was an Ernesto Mejia home run to left field that gave the Blue Rocks a 1-0 lead.

Other than that, Rosenbaum left with a nearly flawless performance. His only other base runner was Salvador Perez, whom he walked with one out in the fifth.

But Perez was immediately erased when Rey Navarro bounced into one of Wilmington’s three double plays.

Rosenbaum retired the side in order four times.

Potomac’s offense scored twice in the third. Back-to-back doubles from Nick Moresi and Francisco Soriano produced the first run.

Soriano went to third when Blue Rocks starting pitcher Ivor Hodgson was called for a balk.

Soriano crossed the plate on Derek Norris’s single.

Robby Jacobsen scored the Nationals’ third run. He led off the fifth with a triple and came home when the throw from second baseman Rey Navarro to third sailed into the Blue Rocks dugout.

The lead, however, was surrendered in the ninth.

Relief pitcher Justin Phillabaum was summoned to get the final three outs.

But he allowed Patrick Norris’s leadoff single, hit Christian Colon and walked Wil Myers to load the bases with no outs.

Mejia’s two-run single tied the score.

Potomac manager Gary Cathcart removed Phillabaum for Patrick McCoy.

McCoy fanned Nick Francis and forced Salvador Perez to bounce into a double play.

McCoy worked three innings, allowed two hits, issued no walks and struck out one.

Lyons also came through. He handled three ground balls, which resulted in outs in the third. Lyons also caught Wil Myers’ line drive for the second out of the fourth. Lyons later retired Adam Frost for the final out of the 13th.

“I got a lot of opportunities I guess,” Lyons said. “Rosey did a good job keeping the ball down. They hit it to third and I got the opportunity to make plays.”