Columbia, SC - The Fredericksburg Nationals powered their way to a dominant 8-3 win to pick up their third win over the series over the Columbia Fireflies. Dashyll Tejeda and Branden Boissiere both had their first mutli home run games of the season.
The FredNats jumped infront early today, taking the lead just as the game started with a Brandon Boissiere solo home run in the top of the first. Columbia responded in the bottom of the second, evening the game without a hit, as Hyungchan Um scored on an error from the catcher. The Fireflies then took the lead in the bottom of the 4th on a Jhosmell Zue RBI single.
As the pitching staff kept Fredericksburg in the game, the offense woke up in the top of the 6th, as Dashyll Tejeda hit a homerun to left center field with Rafael Ramirez standing on first place that put the FredNats in front 3-2. In the 7th, the FredNats added on two more. Gavin Fien hit an RBI double to plate Manny Cabrera, then Branden Boissiere hit an RBI single to bring Fien across. In the 8th, Tejeda hit his second homer of the night on ball that cleared the wall in deep left center by a matter of inches. That made it 6-2. In the top of the 9th, Branden Boissiere crushed a ball on the berm in left field to make it 7-2. Tejeda then came inches short of his third homer of the night as he hit a triple off the top of the centerfield wall to make it 8-2.
The pitching was spectacular all game long for Fredericksburg. In his first game back in the rotation, Leuris Portorreal allowed just one earned run in five innings. Levi Heusman then came in and threw three shutout innings, facing just one over the minimum before LJ Waco came in and shut the door in the 9th.
With the win, the FredNats to a season best 29 games above .500. They’ll look to take the series win tomorrow on the 4th of July. In front of an expected crowd of more than eight thousand, RHP Marlon De La Cruz will face LHP Darwin Rodriguez. First pitch at Segra Park is set for an hour earlier, at 6:05 on Independence day.