Hagerstown tops Long Island 10-8 behind Robert Brooks' two homers

Hagerstown kept landing the bigger blows and finished off Long Island 10-8 on July 5 at Fairfield Properties Ballpark, using Robert Brooks’ two homers to turn a wild finale into a series win. The Flying Boxcars led early, got chased, then reclaimed control with a five-run burst that Long Island could never fully erase.

Brooks opened the scoring in the first inning with a three-run homer to left-center off Julian Minaya, staking Hagerstown to a 3-0 lead before the Ducks had settled in. Long Island answered immediately in the second with four runs of its own, piecing together the inning with a throwing error, Johnni Turbo’s run-scoring groundout, and RBI singles from Oscar Hernandez and Alsander Womack to grab a brief 4-3 lead.

Hagerstown swung back in the third. Trendon Craig drew a bases-loaded walk to force in the tying run, and Carlos Castro followed with an RBI fielder’s choice to put the Boxcars back in front. Long Island kept the see-saw moving in the fourth, when Turbo drove a solo homer to knot the game again at 5-5.

The decisive break came in the fifth, and it started with Brooks again. His second solo shot of the night sparked a four-run inning that also included Jeffrey Wehler’s bases-loaded walk and Jordan Peyton’s two-run single, pushing Hagerstown ahead 9-5 and forcing Long Island to chase the game from behind. The Ducks answered with a burst of their own in the sixth, cutting the margin to 9-8 on a run-scoring error and RBI groundouts by Ian Yetsko and Womack, but the Boxcars had one more counterpunch left.

Castro delivered it in the seventh with a solo home run that restored the two-run cushion and let Hagerstown’s bullpen close it out. Cameron Kramer worked two innings for the win, Minaya took the loss after allowing nine runs in four and two-thirds innings, and Clay Helvey earned the save. Turbo finished with two hits, two RBI and two runs for Long Island, while Hernandez also drove in two and scored twice.

The finale came one day after Long Island’s 8-7, 11-inning win on July 4 and closed a three-game set that opened July 3. Hagerstown entered the game as the Atlantic League North Division first-half champion and already owned its first playoff berth in franchise history, secured June 27 under first-year manager Mark Minicozzi. The Ducks drew past-capacity crowds of 6,044 on July 3 and 6,099 on July 2 in a sellout that marked the club’s fourth of the season.