Kinston Comeback Falls Short As Potomac Finishes Sweep

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Published: July 20, 2009

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Three throwing errors in the bottom of the second inning—two by Ronald Rivas and one by Eric Perlozzo—opened up the flood gates for the Nationals as Potomac scored four runs in the inning, but just one earned against K-Tribe starter Eric Berger.

Berger (7-7) suffered a tough-luck loss pitching four and 2/3 innings, allowing five runs but just two earned, on four hits, four walks and six strikeouts.
Ole Sheldon would get Kinston on the board in the fourth inning by hitting his fifth home run of the season to make the game 5-1.
Potomac would come right back with one more in the fifth and a four-run seventh off K-Tribe reliever David Roberts to break the game open 9-1.

Potomac starter Jeff Mandel (8-4) was dominant in his seven innings, allowing just one run on five hits, a walk and six strikeouts.

But in the top of the eighth inning, Kinston tried to mount a comeback. P-Nats reliever Cole Kimball walked four of the five batters he faced to start the frame, as Roman Pena got an RBI walk with the bases loaded to score Lucas Montero. Kimball was lifted for Dan Leatherman who surrendered a bases-clearing 3-RBI double for Ronald Rivas to cut the lead to 9-5. Doug Pickens then singled home Rivas to cut the lead to three, but Leatherman would shut the door after that, striking out Ryan Blair and Eric Perlozzo to end the inning.

Kinston would go one-two-three in the ninth and lose 9-6. The Indians managed just 14 hits in the three games, a season low number of hits for Kinston in a three-game set this season.

Kinston has an off day tomorrow and returns home to face the Winston-Salem Dash for three games starting Tuesday night with Alexander Perez (1-0, 0.69) on the mound for a 7 pm start.