June 14-16

Friday night baseball on North Prince Street as the Barnstormers opened a weekend series with the Long Island Ducks. These clubs have some recent history, the Ducks defeated the Stormers in the 2012 Atlantic League championship series. On this night Long Island ended the suspense early, the Ducks scored four runs in the first inning and won it going away 8-0. Former big-leaguer Dontrelle Willis pitched a complete game for the Ducks and allowed just five baserunners, a scratch infield single by Blake Gailen in the third inning was the only hit the Stormers had all night. Brian Grening pitched six innings and took the loss but deserved a better fate, he was relieved for an inning each by Brian Tallet, Brodie Downs and Ross Peeples. On Saturday we had our usual lunch date in Quarryville, in the evening Jenny and her mother were along at the ballpark for game #2. The Barnstormers responded to the Friday loss with a 3-1 win. The club took a 1-0 lead in the third on a Blake Gailen RBI hit, they upped the advantage to 3-0 in the fourth on a run-scoring double from Kevin Howard and an RBI single by Austin Gallagher. Stormer starter Will Savage pitched six shutout innings for the win, bullpen support came from Nate Reed, Yoslan Herrera, Jason Richardson and Jason Urquidez. Both Friday and Saturday featured fireworks shows but we were gone as soon as the game ended. In thirty-plus years of minor-league baseball I've seen enough fireworks shows to last into the next millennium. Sunday was a day to stay in and relax, the Stormers were playing a day game (thus the reason for the ladies' appearance there on Saturday) and there were showers in the forecast. Take care, thanks for reading.