STORMERS ROUT HAGERSTOWN

Magic Number Drops with 11-0 Win

The Lancaster Stormers, after a couple of low-scoring losses at York over the weekend, were back in form on Tuesday evening with an 11-0 win over the Hagerstown Flying Boxcars in the opener of a three-game series.

Lancaster dropped its magic number to three with the win and an extra-inning loss by Long Island at home against High Point, needing three more wins or Long Island losses to claim the title in the North Division in the second half.

Noah Bremer (10-7) notched the win with five shutout innings.  The right-hander yielded three hits and two walks while striking out six.  He retired the first two batters in each of his five innings before allowing a solitary baserunner in each frame.

Lancaster reached left-hander Mike Kickham (7-13) for a pair of runs in the first inning.  Damon Dues reached on a single flared into left and stole second.  Gaige Howard followed with a walk, and both runners moved ahead on a wild pitch on a third strike to Isan Diaz.  Kickham also struck out Mason Martin, but Niko Hulsizer, after falling behind, 0-2, drilled a two-run double into the left field corner for the lead.

Hulsizer banged another double to left to lead off the fourth and scored in front of Chris Proctor’s two-run homer to right center with two outs as the Stormers built a 4-0 advantage.

The most daring run of the night came in the fifth when Gaige Howard scored all the way from second when Mason Martin smashed a grounder behind the first base bag.  The ball was fielded cleanly by Nellie Rodriguez on a dive but needed to hustle to first to record the out on Martin.  Howard never slowed down and came home.

Lancaster then put the game away in the sixth.  Shortstop Ozzie Abreu failed to handle Damon Dues’ two-out grounder up the middle, allowing one to score.  Howard tripled to right center, and Diaz doubled to the left center gap to build the score to 8-0.  After Martin was walked by Jack Parisi, Hulsizer lofted a three-run homer onto the deck to cap the scoring.

Newcomers Christian Scafidi and Trevor Kuncl pitched a scoreless inning apiece.  Both wiggled out of jams.  Scafidi yielded consecutive singles to start the seventh, before the right-hander struck out Ozzie Abreu and coaxed a double play out of Dariel Gomez.  Kuncl loaded the bases on two singles and a walk but fanned Rodriguez and got Joe Campagna to ground into a force out to maintain the shutout.

Oscar De La Cruz (4-3) will make the start on Wednesday against right-hander Domenic Picone (0-2).  Fans may tune into the game on FloBaseball, starting at 6:40.

NOTES:  Bremer increased his season strikeout total to 132, the fourth highest single season total in franchise history…Hulsizer finished the night with five RBI and eight total bases…He has three homers in four games…The Stormers have taken 17 of 19 from Hagerstown this season…They beat Kickham for the fifth time.