Hagerstown, MD - Omar Meregildo had his third straight multi-hit game as the Hagerstown Suns suffered a 15-3 loss against the Lexington Legends in the series finale on Friday night at Historic Municipal Stadium. The Suns are 21-29 in the second half and 48-70 overall. Hagerstown will start a four-game
Hagerstown, MD - Omar Meregildo had his third straight multi-hit game as the Hagerstown Suns suffered a 15-3 loss against the Lexington Legends in the series finale on Friday night at Historic Municipal Stadium. The Suns are 21-29 in the second half and 48-70 overall. Hagerstown will start a four-game series with the Columbia Fireflies on Saturday night with a 6:05 PM first pitch.
The Legends scored first in the opening frame against Suns starter Tim Cate. With one out, MJ Melendez doubled down the first base-line and Brewer Hicklen belted a home run to left field, giving Lexington a 2-0 advantage. The Legends added to their lead in the third inning against Cate. Kyle Isbel led off with a home run to right, increasing the lead to 3-0.
Lexington tacked on three runs in the fifth against Cate in his last inning of work. With two outs, Nick Pratto singled, Hicklen was hit by a pitch, and Sebastian Rivero singled to left to plate Pratto and Hicklen, who scored on an errant throw by Nick Choruby. The two runs made it a 5-0 game. Jeison Guzman followed with a single to right that scored Rivero and extended the Legends' lead to 6-0.
The Suns scored two runs in the fifth against Lexington reliever Garret Davila. Kameron Esthay singled to center, Joey Harris was hit by a pitch, and Juan Pascal worked a walk to load the bases with no outs. Armond Upshaw singled to left, plating Esthay to make it a 6-1 Legends lead. Phil Caulfield hit a sacrifice fly to left to score Harris, cutting the Lexington lead to 6-2.
The Legends scored eight runs on eight hits against Suns reliever Phil Morse in the sixth. Lexington scored five runs with two outs and the final three scores of the inning came off the bat of Marten Gasparini. Gasparini hit a three-run home run to right-center field to cap the eight-run frame. Morse recorded the final out with the Legends ahead, 14-2.
Hagerstown scored one run in the sixth against Davila. Meregildo and Esthay led off with back-to-back hits and advanced to second and third on a groundout by Harris. Pascal grounded out to second, scoring Meregildo to make it 14-3. Lexington added a run in the eighth to make it 15-3 and the Suns were held scoreless for the final three innings on Friday night in the loss.
Cate (0-1) spun five innings while allowing six runs (five earned) on seven hits with a walk and five strikeouts in a losing effort in his Suns debut. Morse pitched the seventh inning while giving up eight runs on eight hits with a strikeout. Jorge Pantoja pitched the final two innings while allowing one run on three hits with a strikeout.
Notes: Meregildo extended his hit streak to five games… He also logged his 12th multi-hit game of the season… Upshaw recorded his 13th multi-hit game of 2018… He increased his hit streak to three games… Anderson Franco had his 10th multi-hit game of the season… Esthay has a hit in four-straight games… It was his 14th multi-hit game of the year…The Suns are 8-6 in August… Hagerstown is 4-11 when wearing their all-white uniforms… The Suns lost their 70th game of the season… It's the first time since 2010 the Suns had 70 losses in a season… Cate tied his career-high in innings pitched with five… It's the third time he's accomplished this feat… He set a new career-high with seven hits allowed… He also set career-highs in runs allowed with six, and earned runs allowed with five… Morse set a team season-high in hits allowed by a reliever in a game with eight… The Suns set a new season-high in runs allowed in a game with 15… The last time Suns pitching gave up 10+ runs was July 27 at Lakewood… Hagerstown also set a new season-high in runs allowed in an inning with eight… The Suns set season-highs in hits in a game with 18 and hits in an inning with eight… Hagerstown will start a four-game series with the Columbia Fireflies Saturday night with a 6:05 PM first pitch… It's First Data Night presented by First Data… The Suns will send RHP Andrew Lee (4-2, 4.11 ERA) to the mound against Fireflies RHP Luc Rennie (2-2, 2.33 ERA)… The broadcast can be heard, starting with the pregame show at 5:55 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.
