SAL1 Hagerstown Suns

Suns Pull Plug on Power in Series Opener

Published on September 4, 2010 under South Atlantic League (SAL1)
Hagerstown Suns News Release


On Friday night at Appalachian Power Park, the Hagerstown Suns (29-38, 65-72) used a balanced offensive attack and received great starting pitching, along with a perfect closing performance to edge the West Virginia Power (31-35, 62-74) by a score of 6-5.

The hometown club struck first with an RBI sacrifice fly to left field off the stick of CF Evan Chambers scoring 2B Jarek Cunningham, who singled through the hole at shortstop.

The Suns got on the board in the top of the third when J.P. Ramirez pushed a groundout to Cunningham at second base with the bases loaded to drive in 2B Mills Rogers, who got on base with an opposite field soft liner.

Hagerstown bats would put two runs up in the away half of the fourth frame as DH Sandy Leon singled to right, C Adrian Nieto worked a walk, and then CF Eury Perez got to first on an error by 1B Kyle Morgan on a ball that went through is legs. SS Rick Hague would lace a bases loaded single in front of Andy Vasquez in right field scoring Leon pushing Nieto to third and Perez to second. 3B Justino Cuevas deadened a ball to Morgan at first allowing Nieto to scamper home to put the Suns up 3-1.

Power RHP Quinton Miller, the losing pitcher of record, went 5.0 frames and allowed three runs, one of them earned, on five hits, while walking three.

The Suns got three more runs of insurance with one in the sixth and two in the seventh stanza off LHP Mike Williams. Cuevas' only hit of the night was a big fly, his third home run of the season, a line drive solo shot over the left field fence. 1B Brett Newsome, who went 2-for-5 with 2 doubles and one run scored led off the seventh with one of his two-base hits stroked to center, Leon tripled into the right field corner easily scoring Newsome, and Nieto lashed an RBI single back up the middle putting Hagerstown on top 6-1.

RHP Shane McCatty (1-1), the winning pitcher, was terrific in his second start of the season for the Suns. McCatty tossed 5.0 innings and surrendered one unearned run on four hits while fanning eight. McCatty struck out the side in the third and fourth innings.

The Suns never trailed in the game but allowed 2 runs to score after stretch time in the seventh. Morgan lofted his 11th home run of the year over the right field porch on the first pitch he saw from RHP Ben Graham. Vazquez would later chop a ball to Rogers at second to score C Jairo Marquez, who had singled to center.

In the last of the eighth inning, West Virginia rallied for two more on a two RBI single off RHP Wanel Vazquez to shallow center off the bat of Morgan summoning home LF Rogelio Noris, who walked, and DH David Rubinstein who doubled off the right field wall. After eight frames it was the Suns 6 and the Power 5.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Suns called upon their interim closer, RHP Kyle Morrison, who struck out the side to punctuate the Hagerstown victory. Morrison earned his second save of the season.

Check out the Hagerstown Suns Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



South Atlantic League Stories from September 4, 2010


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central