Suns give 'Birds a walk at the beach

September 08, 2005

SALISBURY, Md. - The Hagerstown Suns must mend the errors of their ways.

If they don't, going home is the only way left to go.

The Suns started two innings with errors, opening the door for 10 Delmarva runs, as the Shorebirds turned the first game of the South Atlantic League's North Division playoff series into a laugher with a 13-3 victory.

Six of Delmarva's 13 runs were unearned as Hagerstown committed four errors. The Suns' sore thumb stuck out again since Hagerstown allowed nearly one unearned run per game in the regular season.

The Shorebirds own a 1-0 lead in the best-of-3 series. The two teams are off today before playing the second game Friday at 7:05 p.m., at Municipal Stadium. The final game will be played, if needed, on Saturday.

The Suns were shaky from the start as shortstop Jose Coronado threw away a leadoff grounder from Delmarva's Francisco Figueroa for an error.

That first error started Delmarva's offense as a Jake Duncan double and a Patrick Scalabrini single victimized Hagerstown starter Jose Sanchez for three unearned runs.

The Suns got two of the runs back as Delmarva went through some defensive woes of its own.

Jesus Flores drew a one-out walk off Shorebirds starter Kevin Hart before Ryan Triplett, who just rejoined the Suns, unloaded a triple to the left-field corner for the run. Triplett scored on Duncan's throwing error.

After the Suns moved within 5-3, the Shorebirds blew the game open with a seven-run fifth inning, starting with a fielding error by first baseman Jim Burt on Jason Fransz's leadoff grounder.

Delmarva got to reliever Matt Durkin by chipping away with singles. Scalabrini and Peter Shier hit RBI singles right before Durkin was lifted with the bases loaded for Rafael Cova.

The Suns finished with three errors in the inning.

The top third of the order - Figueroa, Cates and Duncan - led the Shorebirds, going 7 of 11 with four RBI and eight runs scored.

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