Suns cry 'uncle'

August 01, 2000

Suns cry 'uncle'

By DAN SPEARS / Staff Writer

For the second straight night, the Hagerstown Suns rallied from a big deficit to make it a game with the Delmarva Shorebirds.

For the second straight night, the Shorebirds responded by pounding the Suns into submission.

Delmarva set a club record with seven doubles and used a seven-run seventh inning to pull away for a 14-9 victory over Hagerstown Tuesday night at Municipal Stadium.

"You don't like it, but it happened again," Suns manager Rolando Pino said. "We've got to hold the momentum. That kills you when you don't; you get it, and then they get it right back."

The Suns (14-23, 48-59) were down 6-0 and being one-hit by Delmarva starter Eric Bedard through 5 1/2 innings - and it could have been worse. Suns starter Cameron Reimers, despite allowing the six runs, had also wriggled his way out of three jams unscathed before a three-run homer with two outs in the fifth made it 4-0. Two more runs in the sixth - thanks to miscommunication on a potential inning-ending double play - finished Reimers and made it 6-0.

"He battled, but he threw one bad pitch and that was it. He got one up over the plate and the guy hit it. That's what you're supposed to do," Pino said.

The Suns made their counterattack in the sixth off Eric Bedard, who also had seven strikeouts to that point. Chivas Clark struck out but reached on a wild pitch, and two batters later Brandon Jackson doubled off the edge of the infield grass. Shawn Fagan singled to right to score both runners and finish Bedard for a 6-2 game. Matt Schwager relieved, and Alvin Morrow sent his 0-2 pitch over the right-field fence to make it 6-4.

All it did was fire up the Shorebirds against Marc Bluma in the seventh. Delmarva (22-16, 60-48) used single-double-double and single-single-triple combinations to score six runs off Bluma and another RBI single off Dana Reece to cap it.

The Suns got four in the bottom of the ninth on two-RBI hits from Kurt Keene and Jose Umbria to make it look respectable, even though the wind had been out of their sails for a couple of innings.

"We just couldn't hold it again," Pino said. "They came right back for the momentum."

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