April 13-14

After a rainy Friday the skies were bright and clear on Saturday for the official start of pro baseball season at the local level. The Atlantic League of Professional Baseball started in 1998, the Lancaster Barnstormers have been a member since 2005. On this day the ballclub hosted its annual Fanfest at Clipper Magazine Stadium on North Prince Street. The event featured special attractions all around the ballpark including an exhibition game with the Camden Riversharks. After splitting a pair of road exhibition contests (a win in Camden and a loss to Southern Maryland) the Stormers won on their home field by a score of 9-3. Infielder Travis Denker had three hits including two home runs and four RBI, outfielder Blake Gailen (the reigning ALPB MVP) went yard twice as well. Aaron King (another outfielder) had a two-run single and catcher Pete Paramore added an RBI hit. Starting pitcher Lenny DiNardo worked three innings, he was followed for one inning each by John Parrish, Jay Buente, Derrick Loop, Brian Tallet, Jason Urquidez and Jason Richardson. Parrish is quite a story, he's a Lancaster native and McCaskey product who turned pro in the Orioles' organization in 1996. He last pitched professionally in 2010 and is trying to find his way back from arm surgery, You could tell it was an exhibition game, the clubs utilized free substitution quite liberally. The game actually continued after it officially ended, the Stormers batted for nine additional outs because the Sharks wanted their pitchers to get some extra work (Camden manager Ron Karkovice and Stormer boss Butch Hobson had agreed to everything beforehand). The ALPB season starts on Thursday the 18th, the Stormers host Camden for the opening weekend. On Sunday the Royals played game #5 of their playoff series in Greenville and wrapped it up with a 5-0 victory, with Riley Gill still under the weather Mark Owuya picked up his second win in the series. According to the ECHL this is the first time in league history a team has won a four-of-seven series with four shutouts. The boys advance to the Eastern Semifinals (opponent TBA), the first game will probably be on Friday the 19th at the Sovereign Center. Take care, thanks for reading.