HAGERSTOWN, Md. - Carlos Pena exited a no-hitter after five complete innings and Alex Troop carried it into the seventh, but five runs from the Delmarva Shorebirds (57-74, 28-35) in the top of the ninth buried the Hagerstown Suns (69-62, 31-31) during a 6-1 defeat on Tuesday night at Municipal
HAGERSTOWN, Md. - Carlos Pena exited a no-hitter after five complete innings and Alex Troop carried it into the seventh, but five runs from the Delmarva Shorebirds (57-74, 28-35) in the top of the ninth buried the Hagerstown Suns (69-62, 31-31) during a 6-1 defeat on Tuesday night at Municipal Stadium.
The Suns remain four games behind the first-place Hickory Crawdads in the South Atlantic League Northern Division second-half standings with six left to play but their elimination number fell to two.
Pena struck out five of the first six batters and he faced one more than the minimum through the first three innings after hitting Stuart Levy with two outs in the third. The 23-year-old righty from San Cristobal, Dominican Republic walked one in the fourth and issued two more free passes in the fifth but stranded a pair with a groundout from Cole Billingsley to end his evening.
Troop made his Suns debut in the sixth and retired four batters in a row with a pair of strikeouts before Gerrion Grim spoiled the combined no-hitter on a solo home run to right center field that also broke the scoreless tie.
The Suns immediately tied up the game in the bottom of the seventh by manufacturing a run against Steven Klimek (Win, 7-3). Following a one-out double by Telmito Agustin and a single to left by Branden Boggetto , Suns manager Patrick Anderson called for a squeeze bunt and Angelo La Bruna laid down the sacrifice to score Agustin from third and tied up the contest, 1-1.
Delmarva blew the game wide open in the ninth as ten batters came to the plate. Alejandro Juvier lined a double to left that scored two and Levy tallied an RBI single against Phil Morse (Loss, 0-4). Morse left after recording one out with five runs on three hits. Ryan McKenna added a two-out, two-run single against Kyle Simonds , who later picked up the last two outs.
Shorebirds closer Jake Bray retired the Suns orderly in the ninth. Nick Banks finished 2-for-4 at the plate and Blake Perkins reached twice on a pair of walks.
On Wednesday, the Suns continue their final weeklong homestand of the regular season with the second of three games against the Delmarva Shorebirds, Class A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. Suns left-handed starter Brigham Hill (0-1, 5.40) matches up against Delmarva righty Lucas Humpal (7-11, 4.16) at 7:05 p.m. It's Bark in the Park Night presented by Pet Valu with dogs invited to attend the game alongside any fan with a ticket. To purchase tickets, call (301) 791-6266 or visit hagerstownsuns.com.
