Suns lose slugfest

July 11, 2004

HICKORY, N.C. - The Hagerstown Suns couldn't even say, "What a difference a day makes."

They had problems and it was only a matter of hours after the last game.

Just 18 hours after pulling out a win in the 14th inning earlier Saturday morning, Hagerstown's pitching staff suffered from a victory hangover as Hickory unloaded an eight-run second inning en route to a 20-9 pasting of the Suns.

Hickory jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the second inning, fueled by a misplayed grounder by third baseman Derek Barrows that limited Mike Musgrave to just two innings in his second outing as a starter.

Musgrave's short outing was the death knell to the Suns (35-48, 7-9), who were shorthanded in the bullpen after Friday night's marathon victory.

Seven of Hickory's eight second-inning runs came after Barrows allowed a grounder to hit off the heel of his glove, opening the door for the rally, capped by Bobby Kingsbury's home run.

The Suns made a game of it, though, scoring five runs in the third and three in the fifth to move within 10-8. Jesse Schmidt highlighted the third with a two-run single while Jonathan Armitage and Travis Ishikawa had RBI singles in the fifth. Hagerstown had the tying run on second with one out in the inning.

Travis Nesmith replaced Musgrave and slowed down the Crawdads for 3 1/3 innings to give the Suns a chance. But Nesmith left after the game was halted by a 25-minute lightning delay and was replaced by Christopher George, who allowed eight runs in 1 1/3 innings after working two innings on Friday.

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