Lakewood, NJ - Gage Canning homered and Malvin Pena struck out seven, but the Hagerstown Suns lost on a walk-off homer by Simon Muzziotti in the ninth inning as the Lakewood BlueClaws completed a sweep with a 4-2 victory at FirstEnergy Park on Sunday afternoon. The loss drops the Suns
Lakewood, NJ - Gage Canning homered and Malvin Pena struck out seven, but the Hagerstown Suns lost on a walk-off homer by Simon Muzziotti in the ninth inning as the Lakewood BlueClaws completed a sweep with a 4-2 victory at FirstEnergy Park on Sunday afternoon. The loss drops the Suns to 39-63 overall with a 12-22 second half record. Hagerstown returns to Municipal Stadium on Monday to open a three-game set with the Lexington Legends beginning with a 7:05 PM first pitch.
The Suns took the lead in the first inning against Lakewood starter Gustavo Armas. Armond Upshaw led off with a single and went to third on a hit-and-run with Cole Freeman singling to right. Freeman stole second and with one out, Jake Scudder grounded out to Daniel Brito at second back while Upshaw scored to give the Suns a 1-0 lead.
Lakewood tied the game in the bottom of the second against Suns starter Pena. Jhailyn Ortiz led off with a single to right and went to third when Nick Maton singled. Josh Stephen grounded into a fielder's choice that retired Maton at second, but Ortiz scored to tie the game. Quincy Nieporte game to the plate, but in a 1-1 count was ejected from the game and was replaced by Jake Scheiner who singled to left, moving Stephen to third. Colby Fitch walked to load the bases, but Pena struck out the next two hitters to work out of trouble while keeping the game tied at 1-1.
Canning helped the Suns take the lead back against Armas in the third. With one out, Canning drove the fifth pitch of his at-bat over the right-field wall to give Hagerstown a 2-1 lead. Canning's fourth homer of the season traveled 369 feet and was his second go-ahead blast of the year.
Lakewood walked off the Suns for the second-straight game in the ninth thanks to a three-run homer against Suns reliever Frankie Bartow. Scheiner led off the ninth with a single to center but was caught stealing for the first out of the inning. With two outs, Jose Antequera walked, and Brito singled to right while both scored when Muzziotti homered to right on a ball that just cleared the fence. The three-run shot was Muzziotti's first professional homer and gave the BlueClaws a 4-2 walk off win to complete a three-game sweep of the Suns to end the season series.
Pena threw five innings in a no decision, holding the BlueClaws to on erun on four hits with seven strikeouts. Jared Johnson earned his second hold of the year in two scoreless innings of work, allowing two hits with a pair of strikeouts. Bartow (0-2) went one and two-thirds innings while allowing three runs on four hits with a walk and two strikeouts in both a loss and a blown save.
Notes: Upshaw extended his hit-streak to four games… Freeman also has a four-game hit streak… The Suns were the first to score in all three games of the series… Caulfield had his first multi-hit game with Hagerstown this season… Pena set a new season-high with seven strikeouts… Canning is second on the active roster in go-ahead homers behind Scudder who has three… The Suns are 7-8 on Sundays and 6-3 in road games on Sundays… Hagerstown finishes their regular season schedule with the BlueClaws with a 7-17 record against Lakewood… Lakewood won all three games in the series by coming from behind in the eighth inning or later… Sunday's loss is Hagerstown's third of the season when leading after eight innings… The Suns return to Historic Municipal Stadium on Monday to begin a three-game series against the Lexington Legends with a 7:05 PM first pitch… The Suns will send RHP Brigham Hill (2-3, 3.69 ERA) to the mound against a Legends pitcher to be announced… The broadcast can be heard, starting with the pregame show at 6:55 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.
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