VIENNA, VA—It sure wasn’t pretty, but the Senators found a way to win a in a 10-8 victory over the Reston Hawks Friday night at Waters Field. The Senators needed their biggest offensive inning of the year in the come from behind effort.
The Senators started off the scoring in the top of the first inning, when Donald Brown singled to drive in Matt Lesyk, who had doubled earlier in the inning, giving the Senators a 1-0 lead. Brown then advanced to second on a passed ball. Guillermo Martinez followed a Justin Bunkis fly out by driving in Brown with an RBI single, giving the Senators a 2-0 lead.
The Hawks answered with a run of their own in the first inning when Scott Hoar hit a sacrifice fly to drive in Andrew Winslow, bringing the score to 2-1.
Reston struck again in the fourth inning when Louis Ulrich doubled to begin the inning and scored when third baseman Mike Bianucci sent a pitch over the right field wall, giving the Hawks a 3-2 lead. Reston then extended their lead to 5-2 by tacking on single runs in the fifth and sixth innings.
The Senators drew closer when they put one run on the board in the seventh inning. Will Naylor scored on a Justin Bunkis fielder’s choice to bring the Senators within 2 runs at 5-3.
The Reston Hawks seemingly put the game out of reach in the bottom of the seventh inning when Scott Hoar hit a three- run homerun over the left field wall, giving the Hawks a comfortable 8-3 lead.
Vienna showed the heart of a champion by rallying for their biggest inning of the year in the eighth inning. The Hawk’s pitchers helped the Senators mount a rally by not pitching strikes. Andrew Fritz began the inning by getting drilled by an errant pitch. Newcomer A.J. Lamonda followed with a walk. Genovese followed Lamonda with another walk, loading the bases. The Hawk pitcher followed Genovese’s walk by plunking Kevin Hansen in the back to score Fritz. Will Naylor followed by also taking a pitch in the back, allowing Lamonda to score. The Hawks brought in a new pitcher, but it did not help. Donald Brown drew a walk, bringing in Genovese to make the score 8-6. Bunkis then became the fourth Senator in the inning to get hit by a pitch, allowing Hansen to score. Guillermo Martinez followed with the Senator’s first hit in the inning by smoking a single, driving in Naylor. A.J. Lamonda then tallied his third hit of the evening by hitting a scorching single, driving in Brown and Bunkis. The total damage for the Hawk’s pitchers in the inning; seven runs on two Senator hits.
The Senators never relinquished the lead after the eighth inning. Pitcher John Adams came in and shut down the Hawks for two innings. He recorded his second straight save with the effort. Brown, Bunkis, Martinez, and Lamonda all finished with two RBIs for the Senators.
The Senators are at home tomorrow to take on the Herndon Braves. The game is at Waters field and is scheduled to start at 7 pm.