Hall slugs way into BlueClaws' record book

Coming into his first full season, Darick Hall couldn't conceive of a record-breaking year. But he did have certain expectations he wanted to meet.
"One goal I tried to have on myself was to be consistent," the Phillies infield prospect said, "consistent approach, consistent mind-set, consistent sleep."
With that mentality, he's consistently hit homers and plated runs.

Hall's two-dinger, seven-RBI performance in Class A Lakewood's 14-4 blowout of Hagerstown on Wednesday night gave him totals that broke the BlueClaws' single-season franchise records in both categories. He went 4-for-6 with three runs scored.
Gameday box score
"It definitely feels like a burden has been lifted, being able to finally get over that hump," said Hall, who has 26 homers and 93 RBIs with the club.
"It's a privilege and a blessing to play for this team and in this organization. To be able to do this for the Phillies and the team is an incredible feeling, and to represent the people who gave me an opportunity, and my family and my previous schools."
The 14th-round pick in last year's Draft came into the evening with 24 long balls -- tied with the BlueClaws record set by Jose Pujols in 2016 -- and 86 RBIs -- five shy of Randy Ruiz's 2004 mark. For Hall, who'd last gone yard on Aug. 13, it marked his first multi-homer game and first four-hit showing. He boosted his batting average to .274. 
"It's been really special," the Dallas Baptist product admitted. "During the season, you never really know what can happen. I always tell anybody, you can't really enjoy the baseball season until it's over and you can look back on it. There are 11 games to play -- a lot of things can happen in 11 games."
Hall opened the game with a first-inning infield groundout that gave Lakewood its first run. Coming off a game in which he was hitless with three strikeouts, that was a productive out in more ways than one.
"That got me off on the right foot. All I wanted to do was get that run in. I hit the routine ground ball [to second baseman Branden Boggetto] and did get that run in, and I was happy with that after last night," the 22-year-old first baseman said. "My goal today was to not turn one bad game into two bad games. Yesterday was a long day. We left from Lakewood in the morning, drove to Hagerstown, got off the bus, took BP and had a rain delay for 40 minutes. Then I was 0-for-4 with three punchies." 
That funk shaken off, he lined an RBI single to right in the third. In the fourth, the left-handed hitter saw seven pitches from Suns reliever Kyle Simonds, yanking the final one over the wall in right for a two-run dinger. The BlueClaws put six men across the plate in that frame.
"We knew [Simonds] had a good changeup that was more of his out pitch," Hall said. "But all day long, I hadn't put a good swing on a fastball and I'd taken a few for strikes, so I knew at some point, he was going to throw me one for a strike. On the 3-2 pitch, I was really selling out for the fastball."
In the midst of all the action, he realized he'd broken the home run record.
"I was really happy to do it," the native of Sierra Vista, Arizona said. "I was hoping to do it at home in front of our crowd, but you don't really focus on trying to hit a home run, because you focus on helping the team. The last thing you want to do is hurt the team by trying to hit a home run.
"If a few things went that way, I knew I'd be excited to do it. But if it didn't, I didn't want it to be that I was trying to do to it and I hurt the team."
The very next inning, Hall got to Simonds' first pitch for a three-run long ball to right-center.
"I remembered he threw a first-pitch changeup [in the previous at-bat] and I swung through it," Hall said. "He threw pretty much the same pitch I missed, kind of in the middle, kind of down." 
This time, he didn't miss. 
"Whenever something special happens in baseball, it's surreal, because it's so hard. It's such a tough game," he said. "At that moment, I was just in it, so happy. I was excited to run back into the dugout and see my teammates, because we're all in it together. This has been one of my favorite teams I've ever played on. I like everyone on this team -- they're all great dudes and we have great chemistry. It's special to do this with this group."

Hall opened the seventh by lining a single to right and grounded out in the ninth to finish the game with another record -- he became the fourth Lakewood player to tally seven RBIs in one game, and nobody has amassed more.
Batting directly ahead of Hall, seventh-ranked Phillies prospect and No. 97 overall prospect Adam Haseley went 3-for-5 with a double and three runs scored.
"It was awesome [hitting behind Haseley], because when you're pitching and somebody is hitting missiles, that pitcher isn't wanting to throw that pitch, because he got squared up," Hall said. "He had a really good night. He was spraying line drives all over the field, and that weighs on the pitcher's confidence and makes him slip up a little bit."
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Luis Carrasco (1-2) earned the victory after allowing four runs -- three earned -- on five hits and four walks while striking out two over five innings.