York 15, Hagerstown 5
(July 26, 2024 – Hagerstown, Md.): The York Revolution trounced the Hagerstown Flying Boxcars, 15-5 in their first ever visit to Meritus Park on Friday evening.
York quickly grabbed a first inning lead as Zander Wiel pounded a two-out, two-run double to the gap in left center as the Revs took advantage of a pair of walks from Cars starter Gunnar Groen (0-4). That included a leadoff walk from Rudy Martin Jr who stole second for his 56th steal of the year, setting a new franchise record for a single season in just his 70th game played.
Revs starter Zach Neff maintained the 2-0 lead through three innings as he held the Boxcars scoreless early on.
York ripped off nine runs in the fourth for their biggest inning of the season to date, extending the lead to 11-0. Jacob Rhinesmith took a leadoff walk and scored all the way from first on Michael Berglund’s double down the right field line for the first run of the inning. After Alfredo Reyes walked, Alexis Pantoja singled up the middle to drive in another run. Martin Jr walked to load the bases prompting the exit of Groen in favor reliever Edgar Rodriguez. Matt McDermott’s bouncer to third resulted in a two-run throwing error, and Donovan Casey picked up his league-leading 89th RBI, already tied for eighth most in a season in Revs history, on an infield single that was smashed toward the middle. David Washington added an RBI single to right, while Berglund was later hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Reyes greeted reliever Rafael Kelly with a two-run single to center to cap the huge outburst.
After waiting through the long top half, Neff wasn’t as sharp in the bottom of the fourth allowing three runs. Dariel Gomez’ RBI single got Hagerstown on the board while Eury Perez added a sac fly and Joe Campagna singled home a run to make it 11-3.
Tempers flared in the fifth as the Revs tacked on three runs. McDermott was hit by a pitch to start the inning and stole both his 40th and 41st bags of the season. Seemingly taking exception to the aggressive baserunning despite it only being the fifth inning and the game still within reach, Kelly drilled Washington with a pitch to put runners at the corners. Words were exchanged later in the inning as both sides were issued warnings, and York kicked down the door as McDermott scored on an error and Berglund and Reyes added RBI singles to go up 14-3.
Hagerstown scored on a Gomez single in the fifth and again on an Andrew Moritz infield knock in the sixth but the massive lead was never in doubt.
Berglund capped the big night for the Revs offense, blasting a solo bomb to right in the top of the eighth to close the scoring. The Revs catcher went 3-for-4 with four RBI and came within a triple of the cycle while reaching base four times.
Reyes had almost as big of a night, going 3-for-4 with three RBI and also reaching four times.
Neff (6-4) picked up the win, frontrunning with the big lead as he came within Moritz’ infield single of finishing six innings.
Tom Sutera retired all seven batters faced in relief with four strikeouts. It was his fifth straight scoreless outing, spanning 10.2 innings over which he has allowed a total of just two hits.
Nelvin Correa returned to the mound from an ankle injury for the first time since July 10, retiring the side in order in the ninth to close it out.
York improves to 55-26, one game behind Gastonia for the league’s best record and a franchise record 29 games over .500 (previous high was 22 games over to end the 2011 season), while having won 12 of the last 15 games. The Revs improve to 28-12 on the road, winners of eight of their last nine away from home. They also improve to 8-3 against the Boxcars having won four straight and six of the last seven meetings overall.
Revs righty Michael Horrell faces Parker Markel on Saturday at 6 p.m. as York aims for another series win. Fans can catch the action live on SportsRadio 98.9 FM & 1350 WOYK, 989woyk.com, The New WOYK app, and FloBaseball.TV beginning at 5:40 p.m.
Long Island 7, Lancaster 4
(Central Islip, N.Y., July 26, 2024) – The Long Island Ducks defeated the Lancaster Stormers 7-4 on Friday night in the opener of a three-game series at Fairfield Properties Ballpark.
Long Island took an early 2-0 lead in the bottom half of the first inning on Frank Schwindel’s two-out, two-run home run to left centerfield off Lancaster starting pitcher Brady Tedesco. The Stormers cut the Flock’s lead in half at 2-1 in the third on a leadoff roundtripper to left off the bat of Joe Stewart versus Ducks starter Wei-Yin Chen.
The Ducks went ahead 4-1 in the fifth on a JC Encarnacion run-scoring base hit and a sacrifice fly produced by Ryan McBroom. Long Island added three more runs in the sixth to open up a 7-1 advantage, highlighted by a two-run single from Ivan Castillo as the former Big Leaguer extended his hitting streak to ten consecutive ballgames while also now having reached base safely in 12 straight contests. The Stormers plated a pair of runs in the eighth to get to within 7-3 on a Niko Hulsizer RBI single and a walk with the bases loaded issued to Gaige Howard. Hulsizer’s run-scoring base knock in the ninth got the visitors to within 7-4, but Ramon Santos shut the door as the right-hander induced Howard to line out to Manuel Geraldo at third base to notch his seventh save of the season.
Chen (5-5) collected the victory, allowing just one run on five hits across six innings pitched while striking out six to match a single-game season-high as the southpaw notched his fourth quality start on the campaign. Tedesco (0-3) was tagged with the loss, giving up seven runs on eleven hits (one home run) in five innings of work, walking three and striking out four.
Nick Heath finished the evening a home run away from the cycle as the outfielder became the sixth Ducks player this season with a four-hit performance with two singles, a double, a triple and three runs scored
The Ducks and Stormers continue their three-game series on Saturday night. Game time is slated for 6:35 p.m., with the Fairfield Properties Ballpark gates opening at 5:35 (5:20 for full season ticket holders). Following the game, all fans in attendance will be treated to a Fireworks Spectacular, presented by Amazon. It’s also a Long Island MacArthur Airport Lucky Seat Saturday! During the game, one lucky fan will win two round trip tickets on Breeze Airways to any of their six non-stop destinations from MacArthur Airport. Right-hander Stephen Woods Jr. (5-4, 5.35) gets the start for the Ducks against Stormers left-hander Max Green (8-4, 4.89).
Tickets for the game, and all Ducks games, are available by visiting the Fairfield Properties Ballpark box office, calling (631) 940-TIXX or CLICKING HERE. Those unable to make the game can follow all the action live on FloBaseball by CLICKING HERE.
High Point 3, Southern Maryland 1
WALDORF, MD – The High Point Rockers traveled to Maryland and took the opening game of a three-game weekend set from the Blue Crabs by a final of 3-1.
The Rockers opened the scoring in the third inning after an infield single from Gilberto Jimenez later brought Connor Owings to the dish, who clobbered his 16th homer of the season to give High Point a 2-0 lead.
High Point added another run in the top of the fifth after Ben Aklinski singled to lead off the inning and a wild pitch moved him to second base. Evan Edwards then laced a base hit that chased Aklinski home and lifted the score to 3-0.
Two doubles in the bottom of the sixth lead to a sac fly from Anthony Brocato, as the Blue Crabs plated their only run of the ballgame to slice the Rockers lead to 3-1.
High Point starter Stephen Ridings made his third start of the season and twirled six innings allowing just one run while fanning eight Southern Maryland hitters, before giving way to the bullpen. Garrett Schilling, Will Carter and Dakota Chalmers combined for three shutout innings without surrendering a hit.
The Rockers improved to 13-5 in the second half and 49-32 overall, and now hold a two-game lead over Charleston in the South division, and a five-game lead over Lancaster in the Wild Card. Game two of the series against Southern Maryland is slated for 6:30 on Saturday.
Lexington 14, Staten Island 9
Gastonia 11, Charlesotn 3