Suns Take Series with Emphatic Victory

HAGERSTOWN, MD (August 25, 2019) - The Suns bats jumped on the Shorebirds early, and the pitching silenced the opposing bats in their 9-0 win over Delmarva at Municipal Stadium Sunday.
Hagerstown (61-71, 31-31) struck for seven runs early which was plenty of support for starter Jake Irvin (W, 7-8), who spun six masterful scoreless frames while allowing only three hits and striking out five Delmarva (86-44, 38-23) hitters. 

The scoring began in the first for Hagerstown when the team pushed across two runs without picking up a hit. Shorebirds starter Hector Guance (L, 8-6) walked the first three batters he faced. Jacob Rhinesmith then scored on a passed ball, and Kyle Marinconz brought home another run on an RBI groundout. 
The Suns got two more in the second, this time using a couple of hits. Rhinesmith picked up an RBI single and then later came in to score on a wild pitch to make it a 4-0 game. 
Three more came across in the third, and that really put the game out of reach. It started with an RBI triple from Phil Caulfield, followed by a Cole Daily RBI single. The Shorebirds then went to the bullpen, and Rhinesmith responded with an RBI single against Matt De La Rosa to give the Suns a 7-0 advantage. However, De La Rosa folllowed with three consecutive scoreless frames to stop the bleeding.
Rhinesmith's single gave him 125 hits on the season, passing Ian Sagdal's 2017 mark of 124 to give him the most hits for a Suns player in a single season since José Marmolejos had 145 in 2015.
Caulfield broke the brief scoring drought and added to the lead with a two-run home run in the seventh to put Hagerstown up 9-0. It was the fourth long ball of the year for Caulfield who also picked up three hits in the game. 
As Caulfield added to the Suns total, the Hagerstown bullpen kept the Delmarva total at zero. The arms helped pick up Hagerstown's sixth shutout victory of the season and clinch the weekend series. Christian Vann worked a one-two-three seventh and then Chandler Dayand Pearson McMahan each pitched a scoreless frame to close it out. 
After concluding this series, the Suns will hit the road for four games in Kannapolis before returning home to Municipal Stadium to close out the season against the Lakewood BlueClaws August 30-September 2. For tickets or more information visit hagerstownsuns.com.