Columbia, SC - The Fredericksburg Nationals fell on the fourth of July 7-1 to the Columbia Fireflies. The FredNats fell behind early, and couldn’t muset up enough offense to make it competitive late.
As the FredNats bats struggled early, going down in order in each of the first two innings, the Fireflies quickly jumped in front. In the 1st inning, Sean Gamble scored on a groundball that bounced off the wrist of Luke Dickerson and into shallow centerfield. In the 2nd, Jhosmmel Zue stole home after a balk from Marlon De La Cruz. Ivan Sosa then hit an RBI double off the top of the wall to bring Roni Cabrera across and make it 3-0. De La Cruz exited in the 3rd with the FredNats trailing 4-0.
The offense finally was able to get runners on starting in the third, putting runners on the corners with two outs, but couldn’t bring any across. The FredNats then stranded the bases loaded in the 4th and 5th innings. In the 6th, they finally broke through as Juan Cruz led off the inning with a solo homerun to cut the deficit to 6-1. The FredNats then went nine up, nine down at the plate int he final three innings.
With the loss, the FredNats drop back to 28 games above .500, failing to get to 30 games up for the first time this year. The Nationals will go for the series win tomorrow. LHP Liam Sullivan gets the start for Fredericksburg against RHP Coleman Picard. First pitch from Virgina Credit Union Stadium is set for 5:05 PM.