Hagerstown, MD - Luis Garcia had four hits while Kyle Johnston set a career-high in strikeouts as the Hagerstown Suns snapped a five-game losing streak with an 11-4 win over the West Virginia Power on Sunday afternoon at Historic Municipal Stadium. The Suns improved to 2-8 in the second half
Hagerstown, MD - Luis Garcia had four hits while Kyle Johnston set a career-high in strikeouts as the Hagerstown Suns snapped a five-game losing streak with an 11-4 win over the West Virginia Power on Sunday afternoon at Historic Municipal Stadium. The Suns improved to 2-8 in the second half and 29-49 overall and will play the Power in the third game of the series on Monday at 7:05 PM.
The Suns scored first in the opening inning against Power starter Cody Bolton. Yasel Antuna led off with a walk and moved to second on an infield single by Cole Freeman and Luis Garcia singled to right to load the bases with no outs. Jake Scudder plated Antuna and Freeman on a single to center field to take the lead 2-0 and put runners on the corners. With one out, Garcia scored when Bolton balked to make it a 3-0 Hagerstown lead.
West Virginia scored two runs in the second inning against Suns starter Kyle Johnston. Deon Stafford led off with a walk and Chris Sharpe reached on a fielder's choice and after a two-out walk to Kyle Watson, Lolo Sanchez singled to left field to plate Sharpe and cut the Hagerstown lead to 3-1. Oneil Cruz followed up with a single to score Watson to make it 3-2. With Rodolfo Castro at the plate, Cruz was thrown out at second base attempting to advance on a pitch in the dirt to end the inning.
The Suns answered with three runs of their own in the bottom half of the second inning. Kameron Esthay singled up the middle and with one out Antuna belted his fourth home run of the season to right-center field to increase the lead to 5-2. With two outs, Garcia doubled to center field, moved to third with a stolen base, and scored on a double down the right-field line to extend the lead to 6-2.
Hagerstown added to their lead in the third inning against Power reliever Sergio Cubiliete. With one out, Paul Panaccione worked a walk and scored on a triple down the right field line by Esthay to make it 7-2. Oliver Ortiz doubled to left-center field to plate Esthay, adding to the Suns lead 8-2.
The Suns tacked on three more runs in the fourth and fifth innings. Garcia led off the fourth with a single, moved to second base on a wild pitch from Cubilete, advanced to third on a Scudder ground out, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Alex Dunlap to extend the lead 9-2. In the fifth, Panaccione worked a leadoff walk, advanced to third on a single by Esthay, and scored on a sacrifice fly to center by Ortiz to make it a 10-2 Hagerstown lead. Antuna singled to left field to put runners on first and second with one out and Garcia plated Esthay with a single to right field to extend the lead 11-2.
Johnston (2-2) had his second straight quality start in a win, spinning six innings with eight strikeouts while holding the Power to two runs on four hits with three walks. Carlos Acevedo went three innings while allowing two runs on three hits with four strikeouts in a save.
Notes: Johnston recorded a career-high eight strikeouts…. It ties the Suns single-game high for strikeouts in a game with four other players… Hagerstown recorded their first win on Sunday at home… Four Suns hitters had multi-hit games… Garcia recorded his 24th multi-hit game… His four-hit game is the first one since he went four-for-four on May 25 against Greensboro… He's got three four-hit games this season… Esthay recorded a season-high three hits in his sixth multi-hit effort of the season… The three hits also ties Esthay's career-high, which he's done five times… Scudder recorded his seventh multi-hit game and eighth multi-RBI game… Antuna recorded his 15th multi-hit game and his sixth multi-RBI game… Ortiz had his first multi-RBI game of the season… Hagerstown will play the third game of the four-game series on Monday night… First pitch will be at 7:05 PM… The Suns will send RHP Jackson Tetreault (1-7, 5.23 ERA) on the mound against Power RHP Gavin Wallace (6-1, 3.54 ERA)… The broadcast can be heard, starting with the pregame show at 6:50 PM on www.hagerstownsuns.com by going to multimedia and "Listen Live" which also has downloads for a free app on the iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, and Android... The broadcast is also available on the Hagerstown Suns Radio Network in the Tune-In Radio App.
###
