Long Island edges Hagerstown 8-7 in 11 innings on July 4

Long Island gave its holiday crowd an 8-7, 11-inning payoff on July 4, turning Fairfield Properties Ballpark into the kind of stage the Ducks had been selling all weekend. The win over the Hagerstown Flying Boxcars came in the middle game of a three-game series and gave the club a finish that matched the fireworks-heavy atmosphere around Central Islip.

The Ducks set the tone early against Hagerstown starter Eddy Demurias, jumping ahead 3-0 in the third inning on Jacob Robson’s solo home run to right-center, Jorge Bonifacio’s sacrifice fly and Kole Kaler’s RBI single through the right side. That mix of power, contact and situational hitting gave Long Island a cushion, but the 11-inning final showed how quickly the night turned into a grind once Hagerstown kept answering back.

The extra-inning win made the Ducks’ “waddle-off” branding feel less like a marketing line and more like a payoff for the crowd that stuck through the late twists. Long Island had already blanked Hagerstown 8-0 on July 3 in the series opener, so the holiday matchup became a sharp contrast: one night after a clean shutout, the Ducks were pushed into a game that demanded more patience, more bullpen work and a steadier finish in front of a July 4 crowd built for a show.

The result also landed in the middle of one of the club’s most active promotional stretches of the season. Long Island said it would host 13 games in 2026 with postgame Fireworks Spectaculars as part of its America’s 250th celebration, and it described the July 2, July 3 and July 4 shows as the largest Fireworks Spectaculars in team history. A past-capacity crowd of 6,099 packed the ballpark on July 2, the Ducks’ fourth sellout of the season and the Atlantic League’s record 725th all-time sellout, underscoring how much traffic this holiday run drew.

The Ducks are in their 25th Atlantic League season and say they remain the league’s all-time leader in wins and attendance. This one fit that profile: a home-field holiday crowd, a three-game set with a regional rival from Hagerstown, Maryland, and an 8-7 finish that gave Long Island a July 4 victory with enough drama to linger after the last pitch.