Cate Dominant in 6-2 Win Over Drive

HAGERSTOWN, MD (April 22, 2019) - Tim Cate rolled out his second consecutive quality start in Hagerstown's 6-2 win over the Greenville Drive at Municipal Stadium Monday night.
Cate (W, 1-1) spun six scoreless innings, while fanning seven Drive (7-10) hitters and just allowing a handful to reach base safely against him.
The story for the Connecticut-native this season has been good pitching, he owned a 1.76 ERA coming into today's game, but no run support from the Suns (9-9), through 15.1 innings of work, the offense had scored just three runs in as many outings while the lefty was on the bump. The script was flipped Monday evening as the offense erupted for six runs in the first three innings behind domineering performances from both KJ Harrison  and Gilbert Lara.  

Cody Wilson started the first, reaching on an error and was ushered home from a Jacob Rhinesmith base hit to left. With Rhinesmith and Lara on the basepaths, Harrison roped a double in the right-center gap to score the pair and push Hagerstown ahead 3-0 after just one inning of play.
The Suns bats kept pushing in the third inning. Israel Pineda started the frame with a base knock, then Rhinesmith walked to push the backstop to second for Lara to lace a triple down the right field line to score the pair. Those two runs gave Lara his 18th RBI of the season, good for most on the team and second in the South Atlantic League.
The pen did not give up an earned run in the contest either. Jhonatan German shut the door in the ninth with a pair of strikeouts without allowing a hit. So far this season, the righty has not allowed the first batter he has faced to get a hit against him.
While two runs scored during Aaron Fletcher's two innings of work, they were not earned and resulted from three errors, one from Kyle Marinconz, one from Fletcher and one from Justin Connell. Despite being thrown into a bases loaded scenario with no one out, the University of Houston-product was able to work out of it only surrendering two runs.
Thad Ward (L, 0-1) was saddled with the loss. He went through five innings of work, allowing all six of the Suns' runs, but only three were earned.
Hagerstown is back in action against the Drive tomorrow at 6:05 p.m. at Municipal Stadium. RHP Jake Irvin (0-1, 2.87 ERA) gets the nod and Greenville throws LHP Angel Padron (0-0, 1.74 ERA). 
This homestand is filled with fun promotions at Municipal Stadium. Wednesday is the first Pets in the Park night of 2019 and Thursday is Thirsty Thursday, as well as the WRNR televised Game of the Week. Friday, we'll celebrate the gridiron in honor of the NFL Draft with our Friday Night Lights celebration, Saturday we'll bring Autism Awareness to the ballpark and we'll wrap up the homestand Sunday with Sunday Funday. For tickets and more information call 301-791-6266 or visit hagerstownsuns.com.