HAGERSTOWN UPENDS STORMERS

Brawl Precedes Late Boxcar Rally

The Hagerstown Flying Boxcars took flight after a bench-clearing brawl and rallied past the Lancaster Stormers, 9-8, in ten innings Thursday evening at Clipper Magazine Stadium.

With the loss, the Stormers’ lead over second place York was trimmed to 1 ½ games.  York split a doubleheader with Southern Maryland earlier in the day.  Long Island remained three back.

Lancaster had taken an 8-6 lead off Yoelvin Silven in the bottom of the eighth inning.  Kyle Kasser and Gaige Howard set the stage with singles.  Isan Diaz delivered both with a two-run double into the right field corner to tie the game at 6-6.  Mason Martin followed with a two-run homer onto the walkway down the left field line, jolting the Stormers into the lead.

Joseph Carpenter was hit by the next pitch.  Cool heads prevailed until the end of the inning when Silven was ejected from the game, and the Stormers engaged him as he was departing down the first base line.  Benches and bullpens emptied, and it took several moments for the umpiring trio to straighten the mess and issue ejections.

Closer Stephen Nogosek yielded a leadoff home run to Ozzie Abreu in the top of the ninth inning.  Osmy Gregorio singled into center with one out.  Nogosek struck out Welington Dotel for the second out, but Nellie Rodriguez crushed a game-tying double to left center.

In the top of the tenth, Phil Diehl (4-3) retired the first two batters before catcher Joe Campagna lined a double off the top of Chad Sedio’s glove for the 9-8 lead.

Carlos Gomez (1-0) retired the side in order in both the ninth and tenth innings for the win in his Hagerstown debut.

The Stormers had battled back earlier in the game after the Flying Boxcars reached starter Max Green for three runs in the second inning.  Joseph Carpenter homered onto the right field deck to lead off the fourth.  In the fifth a wild pitch from Jose Lopez scored Gaige Howard from second.  Carpenter followed with a double inside the third base bag to knot the game at 3-3.

Green retired 12 straight before Rodriguez reached him for a homer to right in the top of the sixth.  Cito Culver added a two-run homer later in the inning.

The Stormers host Staten Island on Friday night.  Matt Swarmer (2-2) will make the start for the Stormers.  Fans may tune into FLoBaseball at 6:40.

NOTES:  Martin extended his hitting streak to 15 games with a single in the first…Howard had his 34^th multi-hit game and his eighth with three or more hits…Carpenter had his third straight multi-hit game…Lancaster is 2-4 in extra inning contests.