Game one would feature a matchup between our ace Mark Olsen and Nationals' rookie Pedro Perozo, with four regular season and two postseason starts to his history. The rookie and the veteran would battle for seven innings.
The Knights struck first in the bottom of the first when Ron Barker hit a solo home run to take an early 1-0 lead. The Nationals would come right back and tie the game at 1 in the top of the second on a sacrifice fly. The game would remain tied until the bottom of the third when Jose Turcios hit a solo homer to give the Knights a 2-1 lead.
The Knights would take a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the fifth when Robinson Velasquez hit our third solo home run of the game. Unfortunately that lead didn't last when Ramon Pinto hit a two run home run in the top of the sixth to tie the game at 3.
It would stay tied at 3 through seven when both starters exited. Don Webb was first out of the bullpen with a scoreless eighth, followed by Miguel Hernandez pitching a scoreless ninth and tenth. Bob Kirby would come on to pitch the eleventh and twelfth, and not give up a run. I was relieved that I spent some effort trying to solidify our bullpen, and Ron Bush was next out of the pen to pitch the thirteenth, and fourteenth innings.
With the score tied at 3 in the bottom of the fourteenth and one out Pete Woolford would single, steal second, and move to third on a throwing error on the stolen base attempt. The bases were loaded after an intentional walk to Jose Hernandez and a walk to Ronaldo Lopez, bringing Mario Nesta to the plate with one out.
Nesta joined our organization on Opening Day of 2032 when he signed a minor league contract and ended up with a 1.8 WAR season that year. He hasn't been able to recreate that magic since, although he's been a decent backup catcher, making 29 starts this year and hitting .280. Nesta didn't start Game 1 either, but was in the game after Robinson Velasquez was lifted for a pinch hitter, but he ended today's game with a walk off single to give the Knights the 4-3 win in 14 innings and take a 1-0 lead in the series.
