LONGBALL HELPS KEYS PULL AWAY MURPHY GRAND SLAM HIGHLIGHTS SEVEN-RUN SIXTH

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By Geoff Arnold

 

The Frederick Keys hit four home runs and scored seven times in the sixth inning to defeat the Potomac Nationals 16-6 on Tuesday night at Nymeo Field. In the game, the orange and black set new season-highs for runs, hits (14) and home runs. All nine members of the starting lineup had at least one hit and seven tallied an RBI.

With the lead down to two, the Keys sent 10 men to bat in the sixth. After Frederick loaded the bases, the P-Nats committed consecutive errors leading to two Keys runs. Randolph Gassaway reached on a miscue by third baseman Kelvin Gutierrez and Jomar Reyes got on base courtesy of a Bryan Mejia error at second. One batter later, Drew Turbin was hit by a pitch to force home a third run, before Alex Murphy hit an opposite field grand slam to right. It was the first Carolina League blast for the Monrovia, MD native.

That homer put the game out of reach, in a contest which featured scoring in bunches. Grabbing a 5-0 lead after three innings, Frederick got each of these runs via homer. Stevie Wilkerson opened the bottom of the first with a solo shot off Wirkin Estevez and Ryan Mountcastle and Reyes both added two-run shots in the third.

Estevez (0-1) was also charged for a pair of runs in the fifth, before exiting after 88 pitches. Tagged with the loss, the righty surrendered seven runs on eight hits in 4.2 innings.

Ofelky Peralta was effectively wild in his Keys debut, issuing five walks and throwing 86 pitches in four innings. Despite those figures, he allowed only one run while working around a variety of traffic in scoring position.

Potomac fared better against Luis Gonzalez, who allowed three runs in the fifth. Loading up the bases, the visitors got an RBI single from Rhett Wiseman and a two-run base-hit from Jake Lowery to make it a one-run contest before the Keys re-took control.

Cory Jones (1-0) got the win in relief, tossing four innings of two-run baseball. He scattered four hits, struck out two and did not walk a batter.