Boxcars cap first-half title with 5-1 win over Stormers

The Hagerstown Flying Boxcars hit the 40-win mark before the first half ended, beating the Lancaster Stormers 5-1 in front of 2,720 fans at Meritus Park. The win capped a homecoming night for the Atlantic League North first-half champions and gave Hagerstown another clean, businesslike result after the title was already secured.

The Boxcars clinched the North Division first-half crown and the first playoff berth in franchise history on June 27, then returned home three days later with the break approaching and the final week of the first half underway. Hagerstown had won five of six in Lexington, Kentucky, before the off day that preceded the Lancaster game, and the 40th victory pushed the club past both of its full-season totals from 2024 and 2025. That matters more than the number alone: this was a club that spent the first half turning consistency into a lead the rest of the division could not catch.

Mark Minicozzi’s first season in charge has been the engine behind the turnaround. The league called Hagerstown’s rise a “remarkable makeover,” and the record explains why. Minicozzi, hired on November 14, 2025 after two seasons with the Staten Island FerryHawks, inherited a franchise that won 36 games in 2024 and 31 in 2025. Instead of another rebuild, Hagerstown became the first-half champion and will play in the Division Championship Series starting September 15.

Robbie Baker gave the Boxcars the kind of start good teams lean on when the calendar tightens. He took the ball after not having worked in nine days and was activated on June 30, then settled in after a difficult previous outing. Baker also started June 2 in a 4-1 win over Lexington, when he worked six innings and allowed just one run, so this was not a fluke rebound. It was the latest sign that Hagerstown has more than one way to win: enough pitching to steady a game, enough offense to separate from a division rival, and enough depth to keep the momentum alive into the second half.

Meritus Park, which opened in 2024 and seats more than 4,000, has already been named the league’s Ballpark of the Year in each of the previous two seasons. On Tuesday night, it looked every bit like a venue built for October-style pressure, with a crowd that came to salute a champion and left with a stronger case that Hagerstown is built for more than a nice first half.