BIG INNING CARRIES STORMERS

Lancaster Downs Hagerstown, 5-2

The entire Lancaster attack came in one inning.

Lancaster struck for five runs in the bottom of the seventh on Thursday evening to topple the Hagerstown Flying Boxcars, 5-2, in the opener of a three-game series at Clipper Magazine Stadium.

With the win, the Stormers remained one game ahead of York in the second half North race.  Long Island remained within three games of the division-leading Stormers.

Chris Proctor opened the home seventh with a triple that skipped through the gap in left center against Rodolfo Sanchez (1-2).  Sanchez struck out Kyle Kasser for the first out, but Damon Dues was able to slap a ground ball past shortstop Osmy Gregorio to tie the game at 1-1.  Dues stole second and moved to third on a ground out.  Isan Diaz singled to center to break the tie.  Niko Hulsizer’s hard grounder down the third base line was smothered by Ozzie Abreu, who was not able to get enough on the throw from his knees.  Abreu later kept Mason Martin alive by failing to catch a foul pop up near the railing.  Martin then took left-hander Rob Klinchock over the left field wall for a three-run homer.

Phil Diehl surrendered a run in the top of the eighth on a double by Nellie Rodriguez and a fly ball dropped by Hulsizer down the left field line.  Stephen Nogosek survived a two-out error, striking out two in the ninth for his league-leading 13^th save.

Oscar De La Cruz and Parker Markel were brilliant in the starting roles.  De La Cruz worked the first six innings, yielding six hits and a run on a Blake Berry homer to right center leading off the fourth inning.  Markel was even better, limiting the Stormers to four hits in six shutout innings while walking three and striking out eight.

Adam Wibert (2-0) allowed two hits in the seventh but got Welington Dotel to ground into a force play to end the threat.  Wibert earned his second win in August.

Lancaster will send Brady Tedesco (1-3) to the hill on Wednesday against fellow lefty Mike Kickham (5-10).  Fans may view the game on Blue Ridge 11 or FloBaseball, starting at 6:40.

NOTES:  Lancaster’s starter, other than three rain-shortened starts by Noah Bremer, lasted five or more innings for the 18^th straight game…Martin doubled along with the three-run homer to extend his hitting streak to 13 games…He is batting .404 (21-52) with six homers in the streak…The win was the 445^th for manager Ross Peeples, leaving him seven shy of Butch Hobson’s franchise record.ReplyReply allForward