STEADY SCORING LEADS STORMERS

Lancaster Takes Series Opener, 9-3

The Stormers scored in seven of the last eight innings on Tuesday evening to pull away from the Hagerstown Flying Boxcars, 9-3, in the opener of a three-game series at Meritus Park.

Lancaster was only able to keep pace with other teams in the playoff chase.  The Stormers are ½ game behind York in the North and 1 ½ games behind High Point in the wild card standings.

Niko Hulsizer homered to leadoff the second inning off Mike Kickham (5-12), opening the scoring on the night.  The Lancaster left fielder added a second RBI on a bloop single in the third.  Mason Martin and Gaige Howard had two-out RBI hits in the fifth and sixth innings, respectively.

Through all of that, the Stormers could not shake Hagerstown.  Cito Culver cracked a homer to open the bottom of the third to draw the Flying Boxcars within one.

In the bottom of the sixth, Dariel Gomez drew a walk, and moved to second on a Blake Berry single through the left side.  Both runners advanced on Demetrius Moorer’s sacrifice bunt.  Andrew Moritz rapped a ground ball up the middle.  Isan Diaz made a diving stop but made an errant throw after scrambling to his feet, allowing a second run to score and the tying run to move to scoring position.  A.J. Alexy (1-0) replaced Adam Wibert and picked up two quick outs to end the threat.

The Stormers added two in almost identical fashion in the seventh.  Diaz launched a long double to center to drive home Damon Dues and, in turn, scored on a Hulsizer sacrifice fly in the eighth.  Joseph Carpenter finished the night with an opposite field homer in the ninth.

Phil Diehl and Kyle Johnson finished the night on the hill for Lancaster. 

Chris Proctor paced the offense with three singles out of the team’s total of 12 hits.

Max Green (9-5) will start for Lancaster on Wednesday evening against right-hander Dominic Picone (0-0).  Fans may tune into FloBaseball, beginning at 6:25.

NOTES:  The win was the 448^th for manager Ross Peeples, tying him with Gary Gaetti for ninth place on the Atlantic’s League’s all-time wins list…He moved within four of Butch Hobson for the Lancaster mark…Diaz extended a hitting streak to nine games…Catcher Jack Conley was reactivated on Tuesday…The Stormers signed relief pitcher Justin Dyksma, who recently finished his collegiate career at Ashland (Ohio)…They released catcher Jordan Siket.