Hagerstown, MD - Juan Soto powered the Suns to their second straight win with a three-run homer to cap off a four-run seventh inning en route to their 5-3 victory over the Lexington Legends on Saturday night. The Suns are 5-11 overall and will play the series finale on Sunday
Hagerstown, MD - Juan Soto powered the Suns to their second straight win with a three-run homer to cap off a four-run seventh inning en route to their 5-3 victory over the Lexington Legends on Saturday night. The Suns are 5-11 overall and will play the series finale on Sunday afternoon at Whitaker Bank Ballpark with a 2:05 PM first pitch.
Lexington got on the board in the first inning against Suns starter Carlos Acevedo in his first start of the season. Cal Jones led off with a single and went to second when Marten Gasparini grounded out to first base. A balk sent Jones to third, and Nick Pratto singled to score Jones and give Lexington a 1-0 lead.
The Legends plated another run in the second against Acevedo. MJ Melendez led off the inning for Lexington and on the fifth pitch of the at-bat extended the Lexington lead with his second homer of the season and series. The long-ball gave the Legends a 2-0 advantage.
The Suns pushed a run across in the fourth to chase Lexington starter Janser Lara from the game. Juan Soto led off with a triple to the right field corner. With one out, Nick Banks chopped a ball over the head of Legends third baseman Travis Jones for a single, scoring Soto to make it a 2-1 game. Andres Sotilet entered the game for Lexington and retired the next two hitters to end the threat with the Suns still trailing.
In the seventh, Hagerstown took the lead with Sotilet still on the mound for Lexington. With one out Aldrem Corredor singled and went to second on a balk with two outs. Luis Garcia singled to center, scoring Corredor to tie the game at 2-2. Yasel Antuna singled and Soto curled a homer around the left-field foul pole to give the Suns a 5-2 advantage.
In the ninth, the Legends got a run against A.J. Bogucki but the righty locked down the win for Hagerstown. Seuly Matias homered to left to cut the Suns lead to two at 5-3, but Bogucki struck out the final three hitters of the game en route to his first victory of the season.
Acevedo went 4.0 innings in the start, allowing two runs on five hits with a strikeout. Bogucki (1-0) tossed five innings while allowing one run on two this with a walk and five strikeouts in a win.
Notes: The Suns won back-to-back games for the first time this season… Garcia had his second multi-hit game of the season… Antuna had his fifth and second-straight multi-hit effort… Soto's homer is the first three-run shot by a Suns batter this season… Soto has six multi-hit and multi-RBI games… He now has two, three, four, and six RBI games this season… He leads the league with 24 RBIs… Banks had his fourth two-hit game of the season… Corredor had his second multi-hit effort of 2018… Hagerstown's 12 hits is the most in a nine-inning game this season for the team… It's the second highest total this season, one shy of the 13 hits the team had on April 13 in a 10-inning loss to Greensboro… The Suns play the series finale with the Lexington Legends on Sunday at Whitaker Bank Ballpark in Lexington with a 2:05 PM first pitch… Hagerstown will send LHP Alex Troop (1-1, 3.38 ERA) to the mound against Lexington RHP Nolan Watson (0-1, 9.49 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.
