11 inning loss evens SAL series

The Hagerstown Suns went 11 innings before a winner was declared in game two of the South Atlantic League's Northern Division playoff series.
Problem was that it was the West Virginia Power getting the verdict 6-3 at the Muni.
The series is tied at one and will see a champion crowned tomorrow night.The Power originally slated Clay Holmes to start a possible game three,but have changed to top prospect Luis Heredia against Kylin Turnbull for the Suns on Saturday night.
Uh,Oh.....

The Suns led back and forth for the game until the seventh inning when the Power scored a run to tie the game.
The run should have never occurred as the Suns Stephen Perez dropped an easy throw from Pedro Severino on a sacrifice bunt that would have forced Chris Diaz at second.
Diaz would be the runner that scored on a Josh Bell groundout later in the inning to tie the game.

Hagerstown had taken the lead in the fifth after a Pedro Severino double,Perez dropped a sacrifice bunt that saw Severino roar around third and beat the return peg (and WV catcher Kawika Ensley-Pai) to the plater for a 3-2 Suns lead.

Hagerstown did manage to stay alive in the 10th as Estarlin Martinez gunned down Jordan Steranka at the plate as Steranka attempted to score on a Jonathan Schwind fly ball.
Martinez's throw beat Steranka by a hair at the plate despite the protests of the Power players on the call.

Tripp Keister caled on Justin Thomas to pitch for the Suns in the 11th and Thomas put two runners on base with a strikeout sandwiched in between.
Cody Davis then allowed a single to Walker Gourley to load the bases before going to the bullpen for Bryan Harper to face Josh Bell with the bases loaded.
Bell then smashed a two run double on a deep shot to left center to effectively end the game,despite Martinez throwing another runner out at the plate.
The Suns went out meekly in the bottom of the inning to allow the series to be tied and send us into a Saturday night finale.

Hagerstown has its work cut out for them tonight as heralded prospect Luis Heredia will start for West Virginia against veteran Kylin Turnbull.
On paper,this appears to be a huge mismatch,but the Suns did defeat Tyler Glasnow in the first game of the series,so this is not impossible,but this is asking a lot of the team for sure.


On a day that saw Suns owner Bruce Quinn pretty much confirm that he was going to move the team to Fredericksburg VA,it was nice to see the team draw a nice crowd to the game and see the Muni rocking in a atmosphere that brought back memories of a town that put Bruce Quinn,city councils and politicians aside for an evening and give the town the most important thing-playoff baseball.

I have plenty to write on Bruce Quinn's Friday meeting with city council members,but for now,I will keep things on the on field game.
Trust me,early next week,I'll have plenty of opinions ranging from all the political players to the full season vs short season debate and wrapping up with short season baseball vs independent baseball.
I hope that you will enjoy reading it more than I will writing it....