Kevin's Baseball Stadium Blog: Virginia Credit Union Stadium

Fayetteville Woodpeckers (HOU) @ Fredericksburg Nationals (WAS)

August 24, 2025

Woodpeckers 6, Nationals 3

W: Raimy Rodriguez
L: Victor Farias

HR: Brenner Cox (FBG), Jorgelys Mota (FBG)

Attendance: 3,661
Time of Game: 2 hours, 31 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Fredericksburg, VA
Opened: 2021
Capacity: 5,000
Level: Single A
League: Carolina

After Spending Saturday night in Norfolk, I began my trip back home the following day. Along the way, I stopped in Fredericksburg to see the Nationals Low A affiliate play in a ballpark I had yet to visit. Following the pandemic cancelled 2020 minor league season, the Potomac Nationals moved from Woodbridge to Fredericksburg, about 30 miles south, making it a slightly longer trip from DC and also from where I live. I attended a few games in Woodbridge over the years. While this additional distance to the commute makes it a little less convenient for me to take in a game, I retroactively wholeheartedly agree with the decision to move the franchise because Virginia Credit Union Stadium is such a massive upgrade over old Pfitzner Stadium. This Sunday evening game started with clear skies and comfortable temperatures. It didn't quite end that way though.

Virginia Credit Union Stadium is located just off of I-95 in Fredericksburg. On one hand, that location makes it easily accessible from a route standpoint. On the other, I-95 is best to be avoided at most times due to usually excessive traffic, particularly the stretch between DC and Fredericksburg. It is a relatively small and unassuming facility from the outside. It actually reminds me a great deal of the only other Low A ballpark I've visited so far in this two year minor league tour: Atrium Health Ballpark in Kannapolis, NC. No frills in the design of the park, but an open and well laid out concourse that encircles the entire park. I'm starting to discover that having bullpens outside the field of play in the outfield isn't as rare in the minors as I had previously thought. This stadium has that setup. On top of that, there is a very unique field box section in left field that allows patrons to peer into the home bullpen and look through the left field fence to watch the game at field level. Right field houses a picnic area and a scoreboard deck with a manually operated scoreboard, providing a bit of an old fashioned flare to an otherwise very modern park. Down each of the baselines are full service terrace boxes. Thanks to a work colleague, I was sitting at a table in the left field terrace section for this game. The upper level contains party decks on each end with suites in between. This is a pretty cozy facility on the whole, so virtually every seat in the park is quite close to the field of play. My only real complaint with the stadium is the fact that they chose to make the playing surface artificial turf. It makes no sense to me for a brand new facility in this part of the country not to have a natural grass field. Hopefully that is something they can rectify down the road.

While I planned this stop well in advance, the timing turned out to be quite fortuitous. With the first overall pick in this July's MLB Draft, the Nationals selected shortstop Eli Willits. It was a bit of a surprise selection at the time as most figured they would be targeting either fellow prep shortstop Ethan Holliday or LSU pitcher Cade Anderson. Willits is only 17 years old, so he's even quite young by high school draftee standards. That made it uncertain if the Nats would send him to a full season affiliate to get his professional career started this year. They did indeed send him to Fredericksburg just a few days before I arrived. He got off to a hot start with three hits in his debut and at least one knock in each of the games leading up to this one. In this game, he recorded a single as well. But his most impressive moment actually came in a strikeout, which I will get to later. Things were looking pretty good for the FredNats early in this one. They had multiple hits in each of the first three innings off of Woodpeckers starter Cody Bolton who was on a minor league rehab assignment and has some big league experience over the past few years. The Nationals scored the first run of the game in the bottom of the second on a two out triple to the left-center gap by Luke Dickerson, scoring Willits who had singled right ahead of him. Then in the third, leadoff man Brenner Cox started the inning lining a Bolton fastball the opposite way over the left field fence to give Fredericksburg a 2-0 lead. Unfortunately for the FredNats, the offense completely dried up after that. They did not have another base runner until the ninth inning. Fayetteville bulk reliever Raimy Rodriguez was dominant. He pitched four scoreless, hitless innings. Meanwhile, the Woodpeckers offense finally got to work in the sixth inning, with a whole lot of help from the Fredericksburg pitchers and defense. The frame started with an error by third baseman Jorgelys Mota. Then FredNats pitcher Victor Farias beaned the next two batters. The latter of those was the third time Woodpeckers shortstop Kyle Walker was hit by a pitch in this game. Next came a bases loaded liner by German Ramirez that Willits almost made a leaping catch, but couldn't quite hang onto it. He got a force out at third, but the first Fayetteville run of the game scored on the play. Farias then reloaded the bases with yet another beanball. That was the third hit batter of the inning and sixth of the game by Nats pitchers. Farias was mercifully pulled after that one. He was relieved by Ryan Minckler who was rudely greeted with a two run single by Brandon Forrester on the first pitch he threw. A couple walks pushed in another run to make it a four run frame for the Woodpeckers. This was very much a Low A minor league kind of inning. Forrester, the nine hole hitter for Fayetteville, kept his big game rolling in the seventh with another RBI single, scoring the second of two Woodpeckers runs in that inning. So in two innings, the Woodpeckers turned a two run deficit into a four run lead. During that seventh inning rally, rain began to fall. It was a fairly light but consistent drizzle for the remainder of the game. Fayetteville turned to Leomar Rosario to pitch the final two innings. He was throwing gas, touching 100 MPH on the radar a few times. To start the ninth, he surrendered an absolute bomb by Mota off the roof of the bar in left field, cutting the lead to three. A walk allowed Willits to bat one last time with two outs in the ninth. Rosario kept throwing heaters that Willits kept fouling off. Eventually, the impressive nine pitch battle ended on Willits swinging at a pitch in the dirt for his first professional strikeout, which ended the game as a 6-3 Fayetteville victory.

At such a young age, I would expect Willits to spend most of next season in Fredericksburg as well. So perhaps I will go down there to see him play again at some point. It was a nice cherry on top of this weekend trip in Virginia. That left me with just one more minor league game to attend in 2025: a stop in Indianapolis on my way to South Bend for a Notre Dame football game.

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