Frank Cacciatore

On a day built around fireworks, the Hagerstown Suns were burned by a flare. Before the brightly colored explosions danced high over Municipal Stadium on Friday in a tribute to Memorial Day, it was a 10-foot high liner that barely made it out of the infield that turned the game into a bomb. Hagerstown's bullpen was tagged for 10 runs in the final two innings, ignited by a three-run eighth, to lead first-place Delmarva to a 12-1 rout of the Suns. It wasn't Lorenzo Scott's one-out home run to center off reliever Jim Wladyka for the 3-1 lead, nor Jonathan Tucker's triple down the right-field line that did in the Suns.

When Brandon Nall is on, he's like espresso. On a good day, everything the Hagerstown Suns' reliever throws ends up being hot, potent and well grounded. Nall was on Wednesday and, because of that, the West Virginia Power will probably be up all night. Nall used his sidearming motion to fire 3 1/3 innings of effective relief to help the Suns protect a lead and pick up a 2-1 win over the Power, the top hitting team in the South Atlantic League. "That's my forte is throwing sidearm," said Nall (1-2)

Hagerstown won't see the Delmarva Shorebirds again until late August, and it will be just fine with the Suns if Brandon Erbe is missing. One of the top prospects in the Baltimore Orioles' organization, Erbe mowed down the Suns for the third time this season as the Shorebirds scored early and often on the way to an 8-3 victory at Municipal Stadium on Thursday night. "We were very fortunate to get to (Erbe) last week," said Suns manager Frank Cacciatore of a game in which Hagerstown (30-46, 2-4)

The Hagerstown Suns have become very accustomed to doing double time lately. Maybe just not in this way. Heavy rain forced the Suns to postpone their series finale with Lakewood on Sunday, setting up a doubleheader and a four-game series when the BlueClaws return to town next weekend. To watch the Suns of late, you'd swear they were chewing Doublemint gum, shopping for two-for-one bargains and enjoying double cheeseburgers when they go out. It's becoming obvious that they realize two is better than one. That's because Hagerstown leads the South Atlantic League in double plays.

From Day One, it was obvious that the 2006 Hagerstown Suns were a work in progress. They were a group of young, untested players heading into their first experience of full-season baseball. To them, MP3s meant more than DPs and hip-hop was hotter than bad hops. Still the Suns trudged along. They learned lessons the hard way, going 27-42 in the first half of the South Atlantic League and finishing last in the North Division. There were flashes of brilliance, but they were tempered by inconsistency.

At only 17 years of age, Hagerstown Suns pitcher Deolis Guerra is a minor. But by baseball statutes, the Venezuelan was major Sunday night. Guerra scattered four hits through 6 1/3 innings - his longest outing of the season - to silence Lakewood and guide the Suns to an 8-1 victory before a crowd of 4,188 at Municipal Stadium. Guerra, who dropped a pair of two-inning decisions to Lakewood in May to start his career, struck out six and walked two. "The first couple of times out, he was just getting his feet wet in professional baseball," said Suns manager Frank Cacciatore.

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.

Delmarva played like it had 97 parts of a 100-piece jigsaw puzzle. Bit by bit, the Shorebirds assembled what looked like rallies throughout the game Thursday. Unfortunately, the Hagerstown Suns provided the final three pieces to complete the big picture. The Suns made the little mistakes - two errors and a wild pitch - that made the difference in three Delmarva runs in a 4-1 loss. "We had a couple of chances," said Hagerstown manager Frank Cacciatore. "That's the way things have been going lately.

Frank Cacciatore wasn't speechless, but his response was down to two words. Hagerstown's manager had just watched the Suns turn the tables on West Virginia. A day earlier, Hagerstown made mistakes and the Power capitalized. On Thursday, it was the Suns' turn. What do you think, Frank? "Funny game," he said with a smile. It was a lot easier to smile on Thursday. The Suns took advantage of West Virginia's three first-inning errors to get the early lead and settled in behind a trio of pitchers for a 4-1 victory to bring the Power's South Atlantic League first-half title hopes to a screeching halt.

Every time Jonel Pacheco hits the ball on the ground, he thinks he has a hit. It was nothing different Wednesday in the Hagerstown Suns' ninth inning. Pacheco put the ball on the ground and started legging it to first base. "I thought I was safe," he said. "I always do. " This time, he was right. Pacheco turned a ninth-inning, bases-loaded grounder to second from double play into fielder's choice to score Armand Gaerlan from third with the winning run in a 2-1 victory over Kannapolis for the Suns' seventh straight win. Pacheco has consistently charged down the base line on grounders the entire season, falling a step short the majority of the time.