Radcliff's eighth-inning homer lifts Hagerstown past Lexington 4-3

Baron Radcliff broke a 3-3 tie with a two-out homer to left in the eighth inning, and Hagerstown held on for a 4-3 win over Lexington at Legends Field on Friday night. The Flying Boxcars kept winning the kind of road game that can swing a division race, absorbing an early punch and answering just enough to stay alive until one swing finished it.

Lexington struck first with Trayce Thompson’s three-run homer in the third, but Hagerstown answered in stages rather than all at once. Cade Fergus doubled and scored on Jared Carr’s RBI groundout in the third, Alex Isola led off the fourth with a solo homer, and Noah Smith tied the game in the fifth with an RBI single. That mattered because Hagerstown did not need one explosive inning to recover from a 3-0 hole. It kept chipping back, forcing Lexington to defend a one-run lead that never felt secure.

Tyler Guilfoil gave Hagerstown the innings it needed to make the comeback possible. He worked seven frames, allowing three runs on six hits while striking out four, and kept Lexington from adding to Thompson’s third-inning damage. Jimmy Loper took the loss after Radcliff turned on the go-ahead pitch in the eighth, and Michael Brewer handled the next 1.1 innings without allowing a run before Johnny Barbato finished the ninth for the save.

The result landed in the middle of a decisive June stretch. Hagerstown clinched the Atlantic League North Division first-half title and its first playoff berth in franchise history on June 27, and the win over Lexington came one day earlier, helping build the cushion that made the division finish possible. The Boxcars also beat Lexington 17-11 on June 25 and 8-3 on June 7, then followed the 4-3 escape with a 5-1 win over Lancaster on June 30 before the first-half cutoff on July 1. Hagerstown did not just beat Lexington in this series; it kept answering late, on the road, until the standings finally reflected it.