Hagerstown, MD - Jake Scudder drove in two runs with three hits to help the Hagerstown Suns win a rain-shortened contest 10-8 against the Charleston RiverDogs at Historic Municipal Stadium on Saturday night. The Suns improve to 11-24 and will play Charleston on Sunday with a 2:05 PM first pitch.
Hagerstown, MD - Jake Scudder drove in two runs with three hits to help the Hagerstown Suns win a rain-shortened contest 10-8 against the Charleston RiverDogs at Historic Municipal Stadium on Saturday night. The Suns improve to 11-24 and will play Charleston on Sunday with a 2:05 PM first pitch.
Charleston sent eight batters to the plate in the first inning with Suns righty Tomas Alastre making his seventh start of the season. Wilkerman Garcia singled to right and with one out Oswaldo Cabrera singled to right, moving Garcia to second. Steven Sensley flew out to right, advancing Garcia to third and a wild pitch made it a 1-0 game with Garcia scoring and Cabrera going to second. Chris Hess walked and Pablo Olivares homered to right, extending the RiverDogs lead to 4-0. Dalton Blaser homered in the next at-bat to cap off Charleston's scoring in the inning, giving them a 5-0 advantage.
The Suns stormed back in the bottom of the inning to pull within a run against RiverDogs starter Alexander Vargas. Cole Freeman reached on an error and Luis Garcia singled to right, moving Freeman to third. Garcia stole second and Yasel Antuna lifted a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Freeman to make it 5-1. Anderson Franco doubled to left in the next at-bat to plate Garcia and bring the Suns within three. Nick Banks doubled to left, and Franco scored. Banks went to third base when Jake Scudder singled to left and with two outs, Jeyner Baez singled to left to score Banks and make it a 5-4 game.
Charleston extended their lead over Alastre and the Suns with a pair of runs in the second. Ricardo Ferreira walked, but was caught stealing for the first out of the inning. Garcia reached on a throwing error and scored when Oswaldo Cabrera smashed his first home run of the season to center field, making it a 7-4 Charleston lead.
The RiverDogs added a run in the third inning with an RBI double by Jason Lopez, but Hagerstown came roaring back to take the lead in the fourth against Vargas and reliever Braden Bristo. Armond Upshaw led off with a double and Freeman singled to left, scoring Upshaw to cut the deficit to three runs. Freeman stole second and with one out Antuna singled to center, plating Freeman to make it an 8-6 game. Antuna swiped second and Franco walked, with Bristo replacing Vargas on the mound from the bullpen. Antuna and Franco executed a double steal, and Banks walked to load the bases. Scudder doubled to right, scoring Antuna and Franco but Banks was thrown out at home on the relay for the second out of the inning with a tie game. Aldrem Corredor singled to left, driving in Scudder to help the Suns take their first lead of the game, 9-8.
The Suns extended their lead in the bottom of the sixth, with Banks stroking a one-out single to left and stealing second for the Suns sixth stolen base of the game. With two outs, Corredor singled to center, plating Banks to give the Suns a 10-8 lead.
Rain had fallen all evening to varying degrees at Historic Municipal Stadium, but after the sixth inning a flash of lightening sent the game into a delay, with the tarp being unrolled to cover the infield. The delay lasted 36 minutes, and the game was called due to wet grounds with the Suns taking the first game of the series, 10-8 in six innings.
Alastre tossed 4.2 innings in a no decision, allowing eight runs (six earned) on eight hits, with three walks and three strikeouts. Jeremy McKinney (1-0) threw 1.1 innings in a win, without allowing a base runner and striking out two.
Notes: Saturday was the first weather shortened game of the season for the Suns… The 16 hits tie a season high for Hagerstown, set on May 3 at Greensboro… The six stolen bases are also a season high, surpassing the previous mark of two on April 12 against Greensboro… Hagerstown scored 10 or more runs for the second time this season… Every batter in the Suns lineup had a hit… Six hitters had multi-hit games… Banks has hit safely in three consecutive games… He also had his sixth multi-hit game of the season… Baez had his first multi-hit game of the year… Antuna had his ninth multi-hit effort and second in as many nights… It was also his third multi-RBI game this year… Corredor had his sixth multi-hit game and fourth multi-RBI game… Freeman extended his hit streak to four games… Garcia had his seventh multi-hit game of 2018… Scudder had a multi-hit and multi-RBI game in his Suns debut… The Suns have scored 42 runs in the fourth inning this year, the most in any inning this season… Antuna had his first multi-steal game of the year and ties Upshaw for most steals in a game… The Suns and RiverDogs will play the second game of the series on Sunday afternoon at 2:05 PM… Hagerstown will send Jackson Tetreault (0-3, 7.22 ERA) to the hill against RiverDogs RHP Rony Garcia (0-2, 4.34 ERA)… The broadcast can be heard, starting with the pregame show at 1:50 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.
