The game began on a sour note for the Potomac Hawks as the manager for the Hawks went through two pitchers in the two innings and with facing a 9-5 deficit Steve Gonzalez came in relieve in the third and held the Nationals to only 2 runs over the course of the next 4 innings. Potomac mounted their own attack in the 4th scoring 6 times and a11-9 lead and built upon that scoring a run in the 5th, 6th and 7th for a14-9 lead. In the seventh inning the Novec Nationals finally solved Gonzalez and mounted furious comeback scoring 4 runs in the top half of the seventh inning to tie the score at 13-13.  The Hawks on the precipice of blowing a huge lead were picked up by Justin Willis when he led off the bottom half of the seventh inning with a sharp single up the middle, next batter Michael Manduzio was hit by a pitch moving Justin to second with no outs. One out later, Justin Willis stole third base, and with a wild throw by the Nationals catcher, Willis trotted home with the go ahead run. With Matt Engel came in the top of the eighth to relieve Gonzalez, the scrappy  Nationals would not give up, getting runners on second and third with only one out.  A grounder to Gonzalez, holding the runner on third, got the second out of the inning with a good throw to first base, and with 2 down Engel got the last out when he induced the National's batter to pop up to earn the save.