Voth's gem sparks Hagerstown to victory

The sixth time was the charm for Austin Voth.

The Nationals' No. 16 prospect hurled six one-hit innings as Class A Hagerstown bested Hickory, 4-2, on Wednesday.

Voth tied a season high with seven strikeouts while walking just one batter. After Nomar Mazara singled to open the second inning, the 21-year-old right-hander retired 14 straight batters before issuing a free pass to Evan Van Hoosier with two outs in the sixth.

"This is my second time against this team," Voth said. "The last outing that I had I struggled a little bit, overthinking. This time around I just wanted to execute my pitches well and [catcher Spencer] Kieboom, we were on the same page. It made it easy pitch selection-wise. I was feeling pretty good tonight. My go-to-pitches were fastball in and slider away."

Voth faced the Crawdads on May 1, allowing five runs -- one earned -- on six hits over five innings. The Washington native entered Wednesday's start 0-2 with a 2.91 ERA in five starts for the Suns. Voth expressed relief with finally getting his first win of the year.

"It did take me six starts but it feels great," he said. "A little frustrating but that comes with the game of baseball. Baseball is a hard sport. I just have to keep going out there every fifth day and compete and see what happens. I finally feel like I'm on pace with where I want to be at this year."

The Suns staked Voth to a 1-0 lead when James Yezzo drove home a run with a groundout in the third. The game remained that way until the eighth.

"In games like that, you just have to grind it out and keep putting up zeros and having confidence in your team that they'll put some runs on the board," the University of Washington product said.

Wilman Rodriguez doubled home a pair of runs and Kieboom was 2-for-5 with a run scored for the Suns.

Dixon Anderson surrendered a run on three hits over 1 2/3 innings and Justin Thomas earned his first save after yielding a run on three hits while recording the final four outs for Hagerstown.

Hickory's Akeem Bostick fell to 0-2 after allowing a run on six hits over 5 1/3 innings.