Blueclaws

The Hagerstown Suns wrapped up a highly successful six-game series at Lakewood with Sunday's 7-6 victory over the BlueClaws in the South Atlantic League The Suns (29-20), who won five of six in the series, took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Brian Goodwin hit a leadoff double and later scored on a wild pitch. The BlueClaws (19-30) answered in the bottom half when Aaron Altherr doubled and scored on right fielder Caleb Ramsey's error to tie the game at 1. Hagerstown took a 3-1 lead in the second.

There's is something to be said for “They all look like line drives in the boxscore.” Lakewood's Ben Rice hit a dribbler that went about 100 feet, but to Hagerstown starter Chris McKenzie, it might as well have bounced of the center-field wall. That was the beginning of the end for the Suns. Rice's grounder and foot speed turned a legged-out single into a four-run first inning on Thursday as Lakewood unloaded a 10-1 win over the reeling Suns, sending them to their eighth straight loss.

The Lakewood BlueClaws pounded Hagerstown pitching for 15 hits to back a solid start by Colin Kleven in a 10-3 victory over the Suns in Wednesday's South Atlantic League game at Municipal Stadium. The Suns (61-41, 19-14) had a four-game winning streak snapped and fell into a first-place tie with Hickory atop the Northern Division, with the BlueClaws (44-58, 18-15) a game back. Lakewood took a 1-0 lead in the first inning off Hagerstown starter Bobby Hansen Jr. (2-2), who walked Tim Carver and Alejandro Villalobos to start the game.

The Hagerstown Suns are starting to show the tendency of vampires and gremlins. They all seem to only come out at night. Hagerstown continued to show its difficulties in playing daytime baseball as Lakewood used a four-run first inning and rode it to a 5-3 victory on Sunday before 1,079 fans at Municipal Stadium. The loss allowed the BlueClaws to split the opening four-game series in the second half of the South Atlantic League season. Maybe more importantly, it dropped the Suns (44-29, 2-2)

The Hagerstown Suns played festival-style seating baseball on Friday. It was get there early or don't get there at all because you would never get close to seeing the star of the show. On this day, Lakewood's Carlos Carrasco was in the starring role while the Suns looked like faces in the crowd. Hagerstown missed all the chances to rock the house early and ended up on the outside looking in at a 4-0 loss at Municipal Stadium. Carrasco improved with each passing inning, getting out of early trouble to put together eight innings of three-hit pitching to handcuff the Suns.

Plain old courtesy is one of the hardest things to learn in baseball. Usually when someone is being courteous, it means they lost. Hagerstown Suns manager Darnell Coles was forced to be courteous on Monday. That's because Lakewood's pitching kept the Suns off the scoreboard until the ninth inning and did just enough to score a 2-1 victory before an announced face-feeding crowd of 1,149 in Hagerstown's second-half home opener. "Sometimes you just have to tip your cap," Coles said.

In a night that was a comedy of errors, the Hagerstown Suns provided everything but the laugh track. The Suns committed four errors, played a loose game defensively and only managed four hits against a collection of Lakewood pitchers on Wedneday in an embarrassing 7-2 loss at Municipal Stadium. Lakewood's first three runs were unearned and the final two were helped along by defensive lapses as the Suns (4-3, 44-33) lost their two-game winning streak. Offensively, both of the Hagerstown's runs came without the benefit of a hit as the Suns continued to struggle in bases-loaded situations.

LAKEWOOD, N.J. - Lakewood found a way to beat the Hagerstown Suns' pitching, but it wasn't without help. The BlueClaws used an error by shortstop Jake Wald to score three unearned runs in the fourth inning Wednesday for a 3-2 victory. Karl Nonemaker reached base when his grounder got by Wald, and he took second on a Brian Stirm balk. Mark McRoberts and Terry Jones ripped back-to-back RBI doubles to give the BlueClaws a 2-1 lead. Ryan Barthelemy added a run-scoring single. Stirm (5-3)

The Hagerstown Suns know how to perform in character. While dressed in dark blue Union Army jerseys, Hagerstown conquered with a Hill to claim victory in a Civil War themed night. Taylor Hill came on in relief in the second inning and pitched seven strong innings to lead the Suns to a 5-1 victory over Lakewood before 1,506 fans at Municipal Stadium. Hill, who was scheduled to start, replaced Washington Nationals pitcher Cole Kimball after a one-inning rehabilitation start and took total control of Lakewood's offense.

LAKEWOOD, N.J. - Three consecutive walks in the second inning led to three Lakewood runs, and three BlueClaws pitchers held Hagerstown to four hits as the Suns dropped a 5-2 decision on Sunday. Hagerstown starter Juan Serrato (4-2) retired the first four batters he faced, but walks to Bryan Hansen, Jose Cortez and Omar Bramasco came back to bite him when the bottom two hitters in Lakewood's lineup - Nick Italiano and Chris Klemm - hit RBI singles. Javon Moran's RBI fielder's choice scored a third.