LAKEWOOD, NJ - There certainly was no post-All Star Break lapse for the Hagerstown Suns on Thursday night.

The Suns, who clinched a playoff spot with the first half championship three days ago, breezed their way to a 6-2 victory over the Lakewood BlueClaws in their first game back Thursday night.

"From the onset (tonight), coming from the way we played before the All Star Break, everything was great," said manager Gene Richards. "A lot of times, you don’t know what you’re going to get coming off of a break."

After Hagerstown opened up the scoring with three runs in the second on a pair of run scoring doubles from shortstop Ryan Coultas and right fielder Carlos Gomez, right hander Tim Worthington shut down Lakewood, facing only fifteen batters through the first four innings.

In the fifth, he found his only struggle of the game and responded well. With two-runners on and no outs, Worthington whiffed two BlueClaw batters on high heat. He escaped the inning unscathed when second baseman Bradley Harman grounded out.

"He was laboring a little (in that inning) because it was the first time he threw up to five innings this year," Richards said. "We were very impressed with his effort, especially because he came out in the first inning and threw strikes."

Worthington improved to 2-1 on the year, giving up no earned runs on six hits and five strikeouts in his longest outing of the season.

Coultas extended the Suns’ lead to 5-0 in the fourth with his fourth homer of the season, a deep two-run shot that cleared the lawn area and landed behind the concourse. He finished the game 2-for-4 with a run scored and three RBI.

First baseman Mike Carp tacked on a run for Hagerstown with a line drive solo shot over the right field wall in the fifth.

"Scoring those runs was real nice since it was against a guy who shoved it up our noses last time," Richards said, referring a game earlier in the season in which Derek Griffiths silenced the Suns’ bats at Lakewood.

Tonight was different, though. Each Hagerstown batter collected at least one hit except left fielder Derran Watts.

Griffith tallied the loss on five frames of nine-hit ball. He was responsible for all six Hagerstown runs.

Suns centerfield Ambiorix Concepcion demonstrated why he is considered one of the Mets’ top prospects, flashing impressive defense three times in the game. Twice he made running backhanded catches just before the outfield wall to save potential runs.

In the fourth a runner on first, he broke too far in on a deep fly ball from catcher Jason Jaramillo but the rangy centerfielder turned on the jets back towards the wall and caught up to make the snag at the warning track for the third out of the inning.

"He obviously covers enough ground to make those plays," Richards said. "I think he can play centerfield with anyone and play better. There is some room to make improvements so that those balls he got to today would be easy, routine plays."

Charles Bowman and Matthew Miramontes each worked a scoreless inning in relief for Hagerstown. Sandwiched between the two were two innings from Carlos Muniz, who surrendered both of Lakewood’s runs in the seventh.

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