FAYETTEVILLE, NC - The Fayetteville Woodpeckers erupted for 15 runs as they took down Fredericksburg 15-2.

Fayette grabbed a lead right away in the home half of the first. After Mason Denaburg walked the first two batters, Narbe Cruz crushed a home run to left field to quickly put the Woodpeckers ahead 3-0. Ryan Clifford added a two-run shot in the second inning to make it 5-0.

Bryan Caceres relieved Denaburg in the third inning and held Fayetteville scoreless through the fifth inning, but the FredNats could not find their groove offensively against Joey Mancini. The righty allowed just a pair of Fredericksburg hits and no runs through four innings; then Walker Brockhouse pitched a scoreless fifth to follow Mancini.

Fayetteville eventually got to Caceres in the sixth inning. The Woodpeckers strung together a double, single, and a walk to load the bases before Rolando Espinosa bounced into a double play, which scored Justin Williams. With two outs now, Tyler Whitaker laced an RBI single into right to make it 7-0 before a wild pitch from Jose Ulloa made it 8-0. Finally, Sandro Gaston doubled into left to drive in two more runs and put the Woodpeckers up 10-0.

Fayetteville tacked on four more runs in the seventh and one in the eighth, as the Nationals managed just a pair of runs in a 15-2 loss.

Walker Brockhouse got the win out of the bullpen, while Denaburg took the loss for Fredericksburg. Jake Bennett makes his second start of the year in game three of the series against Fayetteville’s Andrew Taylor. The first pitch is at 7:05.