June 9-10

Had our usual Saturday lunch in Quarryville, in the afternoon Jenny and Helen were along for the ride north to Baseballtown as the R-Phils evened the series with Harrisburg on the strength of a 7-2 win. Troy Hanzawa had a two-run triple, Brandon Tripp and Sebastian Valle had RBI hits and winning pitcher David Buchanan helped himself with an run-scoring single. The highlight of the night came in the eighth inning when Jiwan James circled the bases on an inside-the-park home run, the first by a R-Phil since Derrick Mitchell did it in April of 2011. Over 7900 in the house for fireworks as there were three in my car headed home at the same time. On Sunday it was 88 degrees at the 1:35 game time, the ballclub won in walk-off fashion 5-4. Tim Kennelly hit a first-inning home run, Steve Lerud picked up an RBI on a bases-loaded walk and Troy Hanzawa had an RBI groundout but the boys trailed 4-3 before Brandon Tripp tied it with a homer in the seventh. In the ninth inning Kennelly ended it with a first-pitch home run as the crowd of better than 7400 roared its approval. Justin Friend pitched a scoreless inning for the win, Michael Cisco also worked in relief of Julio Rodriguez. The ballclub is shorthanded right now because of injuries, Kennelly has been batting in the lead-off position out of necessity. In these two games he was 7-for-8 with two home runs. The club's mark stands at 33-26 (17-14 at home), the next homestand begins on Friday the 15th. Take care, thanks for reading.