Suns rise thanks to rally in 9th

August 26, 2005

SALISBURY, Md. - For the first time since April, the Hagerstown Suns rallied from a deficit in the ninth inning for a victory.

The Suns turned three singles, a walk, a sacrifice bunt, a sacrifice fly, a passed ball and a wild pitch into four runs and stunned the Delmarva Shorebirds 6-4 in a battle of first- and last-place teams in the South Atlantic League North Division.

Ambiorix Concepcion and Jim Burt led off the ninth with base hits off Shorebirds reliever Blake Owen. A passed ball allowed Concepcion to score from third, before Owen walked Jesus Flores and was replaced by Casey Cahill.

Armand Gaerlan's sac bunt moved Burt to third and Flores to second, and Josh Wyrick's walk loaded the bags. Kyle Brown's sac fly scored Burt with the tying run.

Cahill then uncorked a wild pitch, allowing Flores to score with the winning run. Matt Fisher's single scored Wyrick with an insurance run.

Joe Serfass (1-1) pitched the final three innings for the Suns and retired Delmarva 1-2-3 in the ninth to lock up the victory.

Brown singled and scored on Carlos Gomez's single in the eighth to cut Delmarva's lead to 3-2. The Shorebirds got the run back on singles by Jacob Duncan, Jason Fransz and Juan Gutierrez in the bottom half.

Francisco Figueroa singled and scored on a groundout in the first inning to give the Shorebirds a 1-0 lead. Flores doubled and scored on Wyrick's sac fly in the second to tie it at 1-1, before Patrick Scalabrini's two-run home run in the fourth gave Delmarva a 3-1 edge.

Suns starter Blake Eager went six innings, allowing seven hits and two earned runs.

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