Lakewood, NJ - Alex Dunlap homered twice as the Hagerstown Suns gave up a seven-run lead, falling to the Lakewood BlueClaws 10-8 at FirstEnergy Park on Friday night. The Suns fall to 39-60 overall and are 12-20 in the second half with the second game of the series set for
Lakewood, NJ - Alex Dunlap homered twice as the Hagerstown Suns gave up a seven-run lead, falling to the Lakewood BlueClaws 10-8 at FirstEnergy Park on Friday night. The Suns fall to 39-60 overall and are 12-20 in the second half with the second game of the series set for a 7:05 PM first pitch on Saturday.
The Suns powered the first run of the game across the plate in the second inning against Lakewood starter Will Stewart. Jake Scudder led off the inning with his fifth homer of the season, a 377-foot blast to give Hagerstown a 1-0 lead.
Hagerstown extended their lead in the third by putting up a four-spot against Stewart in the third. Kameron Esthay singled and Armond Upshaw was hit by a pitch with both runners advancing one base on a sacrifice bunt by Cole Freeman. With two outs, Scudder singled to left to scored Esthay and Upshaw and give the Suns a 3-0 lead. Dunlap homered in the next at-bat, plating Scudder while extending the Suns lead to 5-0.
Lakewood got a run back in the bottom of the third, but Hagerstown added two more in the fourth against Stewart. Phil Caulfield reached on an infield single and went to third on an errant pickoff attempt. With one out Esthay walked and Upshaw singled to center, plating Caulfield to make it a 6-1 game while Esthay went to second. Both moved up on a passed ball, and Freeman doubled to right to score the pair and give Hagerstown a 7-1 advantage.
In the fifth, Tyler Fallwell gave up the Suns third homer of the game to extend the visitor's lead. Dunlap led off the inning by hammering his third long-ball of the season and second of the game over the left-field wall to extend the Suns lead to 8-1. Dunlap's homer traveled 427 feet to give Hagerstown their largest lead of the night.
Lakewood nibbled away at the Suns lead, scoring four runs between the fifth and sixth innings to narrow the margin to three runs with a score of 8-5. In the eighth, Lakewood sent 10 batters to the plate against Connor Zwetsch and Phil Morse to take the lead. Colby Fitch led off with a walk and with one out Dalton Guthrie was hit by a pitch. Daniel Brito singled to load the bases and Simon Muzziotti singled to short, scoring fitch while keeping the bases loaded. Jake Scheiner singled to left, plating Guthrie and Brito to bring the BlueClaws within a run at 8-7. Morse entered the game out of the bullpen for Hagerstown, but Jhailyn Ortiz reached on an error that allowed Brito to score, tying the game. Nick Maton doubled to center in the next at-bat, plating both Muzziotti and Scheiner to give the BlueClaws a 10-8 lead. The Suns got a runner on base in the ninth, but Zach Warren struck out the next three batters to secure Lakewood's come-from-behind victory.
Andrew Lee threw five innings while allowing two runs (one earned) on five hits with two walks and seven strikeouts. Carlos Pena threw one inning of relief, allowing three runs on three hits with a walk. Zwetsch (0-1) lasted one and one-third innings while allowing five runs on four hits with a walk and three strikeouts in a loss. Morse threw two-thirds of an inning while allowing a hit with two strikeouts en route to a blown save.
Notes: Dunlap had his second multi-homer game of his career… It's also the second this season for a Suns hitter… The last player to have two homers in a game for Hagerstown was Anderson Franco who did it against the Greensboro Grasshoppers on May 2… It was his third multi-hit game of the season… Dunlap's three this ties a career-high… He also tied a season-high with three RBIs in his third multi-RBI game of the season… Freeman had his 16th multi-hit game of the year… Scudder had his 11th… He also had his ninth multi-RBI game of the season… His 37 RBIs are the most on the team… Seven Suns had hits on Friday… The loss is their third of the season when leading after seven innings… Hagerstown continues the three-game series on Saturday night at FirstEnergy Park in Lakewood… First pitch will be at 7:05 PM… The Suns will send RHP Jackson Tetreault (3-8, 4.58 ERA) to the mound against BlueClaws LHP David Parkinson (8-1, 1.51 ERA)… The broadcast can be heard, starting with the pregame show at 6:50 PM on www.hagerstownsuns.com by going to multimedia tab and clicking on "Listen Live"... The broadcast is also available on the Hagerstown Suns Radio Network in the Tune-In Radio and MiLB First Pitch apps.
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