June 8, 2005 

VIENNA, VA-- The problem for the Vienna Senators on Wednesday night was not getting men on base, it was driving men home.  The Senators left 12 men stranded on base in a 7-5 loss to Reston at Waters Field.

            The Senators struck in the first inning when Andrew Fritz hit into a fielder’s choice to drive in Matt Lesyk, who had reached base when he was hit by a pitch.  The Senators could have done much more damage in the inning because they had the bases loaded with only one out.  They failed to capitalize on this opportunity when both Reggie Dixon and Mike Genovese struck out to end the inning.

             Reston third baseman Mike Bianucci put the Hawks on the board in the second inning when he sent a Joe Hughes pitch over the right field wall to tie the game 1-1.

            The Senators put runs on the scoreboard again in the bottom of the second inning.  Will Naylor singled to start the inning and advanced to second on a wild pitch by the Hawk’s pitcher.  Will Bussey followed by drawing a walk to put men on first and second.  Barret Shaft, who was making his debut for the Senators, followed Bussey with a fly out to right. A mishandled throw by the Hawk shortstop allowed Bussey to advance to second and Naylor to score for the Senator’s second run of the game.  Matt Lesyk followed Shaft with a walk and was able to steal second.  During Justin Bunkis’ at bat, the Hawk catcher threw the ball down to third base to try to pick off Bussey, but the  third baseman mishandled the throw, allowing Bussey to score, giving the Senators a comfortable 3-1 lead.  Lesyk advanced to third on the error, but Justin Bunkis popped out and  Andrew Fritz flied out to end the Senator threat.

            The Hawks drew closer in the fifth inning when designated hitter Matt Capabarat doubled to start the inning and was driven on a double by Matt Westover.  This made the score 3-2.

            In the sixth inning, the Hawks struck again.  Brandon McDowell came in to relieve Joe Hughes and gave up a single to Louis Ulrich.  Ulrich’s at- bat followed with a lengthy game delay when a Hawk player needed to receive medical attention for a cut under his eye.  The play stoppage seemed to hurt any momentum that the Senators had at this point.  After the delay, McDowell got catcher Steve Todd to ground out.  Then the flood gates broke open on the Senators, who had been extremely good at keeping teams in check offensively.  Mike Bianucci doubled to advance Ulrich to third.  Two batters later, Capbarat doubled again, driving in two runs.  First baseman Antony Concepcion followed by singling to center, driving in Capbarat.  Shortstop Steve Hansen then reached on an error by the Senator second baseman, which advanced Concepcion to third.  McDowell  hit Westover with a pitch to load the bases.  Concepcion scored when McDowell walked Jeremy Hendricks with the bases loaded.  The total damage for the inning was four runs, leaving the Senators to play catch up.

            The Senators showed a great deal of resilience when they found themselves down.  They answered the Hawk’s big inning with two runs in the bottom half of the sixth.  New Hawks pitcher Marcus Nalls loaded the bases and Andrew Fritz capitalized by connecting on a two RBI single to draw the Senators within one run.

            The Hawks tacked on one more run in the eighth when Concepcion reached second on an error by the Senator centerfielder.  He advanced to third when Hansen singled.  Westover followed by driving in Concepcion with a fielder’s choice.  That finished off the Hawk’s scoring for the night.  The Senators were unable to mount any kind of rally in the ninth.

            Andrew Fritz ended the game with three RBIs and pitcher Joe Hughes threw five effective innings, giving up only two runs while striking out five.  CJ Thornton also made his debut for the Senators, giving up one unearned run in three innings of work.

            The Senators are now 2-2 and get a chance to get the bad taste out of their mouth immediately when they take on the Fairfax Nationals in Herndon at 7 pm on Thursday night.