Game #76 Preview — Power at Suns
Game #76 — Road Game #35
West Virginia Power (7–2, 44–31) at Hagerstown Suns (1–8, 28–49)
Sunday, July 1–2:05 p.m.
Historic Municipal Stadium (Hagerstown, Md.)
CRUZ LEADS OFFENSIVE OUTBURST IN 12–4 WIN: Oneil Cruz went 4-for-6 with a double, two RBI and two runs scored as West Virginia piled on 15 hits, one shy of tying its season high, to claim a 12–4 victory over the Hagerstown Suns Saturday evening at Historic Municipal Stadium. The Power tacked on two runs in the third courtesy of Cruz’s double and a passed ball before adding five more in the fifth as all nine men came to the plate in the frame. Ben Bengtson started the scoring with a sacrifice fly before Chris Sharpe singled, Raul Siri smacked a two-run double, his first hit with West Virginia, and Ryan Peurifoy drove in a run to make it 7–0 Power. Hagerstown managed to tally two runs in the fifth against Hunter Stratton, who lasted just 4.1 innings, and one in the sixth against Drew Fischer, who earned the win in relief, to close the lead to 7–3. However, West Virginia responded with another five-run, nine men to the plate seventh inning, with Bengtson igniting the scoring again. The Power third baseman scored on a throwing error for the first run of the inning. Then, Kyle Watson smoked an RBI double and Jesse Medrano, Lolo Sanchez and Cruz posted back-to-back-to-back run scoring singles to extend West Virginia’s edge to 12–3. Elvis Escobar made his South Atlantic League debut on the mound Saturday, tossing the eighth and ninth innings while not allowing a hit and striking out three.
PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Cody Bolton (3–0, 1.03 ERA) gets the nod for West Virginia, while Hagerstown counters with RHP Kyle Johnston (1–2, 3.15 ERA).
POWER LINEUP:
Oneil Cruz — SS
Rodolfo Castro — 2B
Cal Mitchell — RF
Ben Bengtson — 3B
Deon Stafford — C
Chris Sharpe — CF
Raul Siri — DH
Kyle Watson — 1B
Lolo Sanchez — LF
Cody Bolton — RHP
ODDS AND ENDS:
CRUZ ENJOYS THE SUMMER SUN(S): Cruz finished off a torrid June in loud fashion Saturday night, as the Power infielder led the team in average (.375), home runs (3) and RBI (19) during the month. Cruz raised his season average to .312 with his third four-hit game of the season, also increasing his team-high RBI total to 46, second-best in the Pirates system to Will Craig (56, Double-A Altoona). His season average and RBI both rank fourth-best in the SAL. The Dominican native put together his best statistical month of the season in June, posting a 1.025 OPS in 25 games. Cruz has also thoroughly enjoyed his time at Historic Municipal Stadium in 2018, boasting a ridiculous .524 (11-for-21) clip in four games with five extra-base hits, four RBI and five runs scored. The shortstop recorded his team-best 24th multi-hit and 12th multi-RBI games Saturday.
POWER SURGING IN HAGERSTOWN: West Virginia has had a lot of success in Hagerstown in 2018. In their first series with the Suns from May 9–11, the Power outscored Hagerstown 22–5 in a three-game sweep that included their largest margin of victory of the season in the middle match, when they delivered a 13–2 drubbing. That brooming was part of a six-game winning streak for West Virginia, tied for its longest of the season. Overall, the Power is hitting .305 (47-of-154) as a team against the Suns with five home runs and 30 RBI, while the pitching staff is 4–0 with a 1.75 ERA (7 ER/36 IP) and allowing batters just a .203 clip against them. With its 12–4 win yesterday, West Virginia moved to 16–0 when scoring seven or more runs in a ballgame.
THE BIG INNING: With a pair of five-run frames in Saturday’s win, the Power tallied their first multi-big inning contest since April 17, 2017, when they used a five-run third and a five-run eighth to demolish the Hickory Crawdads, 19–3, with a whopping 22 hits at L.P. Frans Stadium.
ROAD WARRIORS: The Power has won eight straight road games, courtesy of back-to-back sweeps of the Augusta GreenJackets and Hickory Crawdads at SRP Park and L.P. Frans Stadium and Saturday’s series-opening win over Hagerstown. The club has claimed eight games in a row on the road for the first time since a 12-game road winning streak from July 20-August 25, 2009, the longest stretch in club history.
HEY SIRI: After going 0-for-3 in his West Virginia debut Thursday against Hickory, Siri recorded his first hit with the Power with a two-run double to the base of the left-field wall Saturday. It was Siri’s fourth extra-base hit of the season in 12 games as well as his fourth and fifth RBI.
ESCOBAR SHINES IN DEBUT: Escobar was absolutely dominant over his two innings of work Saturday. The left-hander flexed 95 MPH with a fastball, change-up and slurve mix, striking out three batters and setting down six of the seven men he faced, with the lone exception coming on a walk to Kameron Esthay with one out in the eighth inning.
POWER POINTS: West Virginia went 8-for-13 (.615) with runners in scoring position… Medrano notched his first multi-hit game with the Power, while Sanchez registered his 13th and Sharpe posted his 15th… Medrano scored two runs in a game for just the second time in his career… Sanchez picked up his third outfield assist of 2018… West Virginia sat atop or near the top of the SAL in a few categories in June (SV: 12, 1st; ERA: 3.21, 3rd; SB: 22, T-2nd; RPG: 5.0, 3rd), helping the team to its best statistical June record in club history at 19–8.
ON THE AIR: West Virginia Power games can be heard on The Jock 1300 & 1340 AM in the Kanawha Valley, online at wvpower.com and on the TuneIn Radio App. David Kahn and John Kocsis will handle play-by-play duties in 2018. Sunday’s pregame coverage begins at 1:45 p.m. on the West Virginia Power Baseball Network.
