April 6-8

Friday afternoon: Jenny and Helen were along for their first ballgame of the season. It was 53 degrees at game time with a sharp wind from the northwest at 14 miles per hour. The R-Phils made it 3-0 on the year with a 9-4 victory over Portland. Jiwan James had three hits including a home run and two RBI, returnee Tim Kennelly knocked in three runs, infielder Troy Hanzawa had an RBI hit and firstbaseman Darin Ruf hit a sacrifice fly. Trevor May pitched five innings for the win with bullpen support from J.C. Ramirez, Michael Cisco and Juan Morillo. The game took better than three hours, between falling temperatures and the persistent wind the ladies couldn't wait to get in the car at night's end. On Saturday we had our usual lunch date in Quarryville, in the afternoon Dick Myers joined me for the the ride north to Baseballtown, Jenny and Helen had planned on attending but with similar weather conditions in the offing they decided to forgo it and stay warm at home (can't say that I blame them, as a fan I don't think I'd enjoy sitting out in the wind and cold either). On this night the ballclub finished the four-game sweep with a 4-1 win as Jiwan James had an RBI triple, Leandro Castro and Tim Kennelly had run-scoring hits as well. The real story was starting pitcher David Buchanan who went seven scoreless innings with nine strikeouts for the win, Justin Friend finished it for the save. This game was played in much quicker fashion, with a 6:05 Saturday night start we were done before 8:30 and back home before 9:30 (where was that on Friday). Sunday was slow and uneventful, it was a perfect time to relax and recharge the batteries. With baseball underway and the street hockey season starting this week business is picking up. Take care, thanks for reading.