Suns show human side with errors

August 27, 2009|By CONNER GILBERT/Staff Correspondent

The formula was easy. The Hagerstown Suns dropped the ball and then dropped the series.

Errors continued to plague the Suns on Thursday night as they sent the Lakewood BlueClaws on their way with a 7-2 victory at Municipal Stadium.

Lakewood completed a three-game sweep in a series marked by defensive mistakes for the Suns.

In the top of the first, Lakewood's Anthony Gose reached first on an error by Hagerstown third baseman James Keithley and eventually scored on Travis d'Arnaud's single to right. Two batters later, d'Arnaud scored on Travis Mattair's single to right. Vladimir De Los Santos followed by lining a two-run single to center to give the BlueClaws a 4-0 lead.

The Suns responded in the bottom half when Valerio Heredia led off the inning with a walk and scored when Steve Lombardozzi tripled into the left-field corner to cut the Hagerstown deficit to 4-1.

Lakewood added another run in the third on Mattair's RBI double to right to make it 5-1.

The BlueClaws increased their lead in the fifth. Korby Mintken led off with a single and came around to score when Troy Hanzawa grounded into a fielder's choice. Hanzawa moved to third on Hagerstown right fielder Charlie Fermaint's fielding error, then scored on a passed ball to give Lakewood a 7-1 advantage.

Hagerstown picked up another run in the bottom of the eighth when Fermaint scored on a wild pitch to make it 7-2. But the Suns were unable to string a rally together, stranding four runners in the final two innings.

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