September 4-5

Wednesday afternoon: Dick met me at my place, from there we headed south into Maryland for one final affiliated-league game in 2013. The Aberdeen Ironbirds hosted the Lowell Spinners (Boston Red Sox affiliate) on the final night of the New York-Pennsylvania League season. In minor league baseball the higher-level affiliated leagues always end on Labor Day, lower levels like the NY-P usually run a few days past that. Before the game Ironbird firstbaseman Trey Mancini (a first-year pro from the University Of Notre Dame) was named the club's MVP. The 'Birds won the game 5-4, Mancini had two hits to establish a new club record in that category. On Thursday Jenny and I had lunch together, in the evening the Barnstormers wrapped up their series with Somerset. After the tough extra-inning loss on Tuesday the ballclub rebounded with a 2-1 Wednesday win to even the series. In the rubber game on Thursday the Stormers trailed 2-0 in the seventh, a Jerry Owens RBI single and a Joe Thurston two-run double made it 3-2. The Patriots would tie it in the ninth and score twice in the tenth, the Barnstormers got one back on a Dayton Buller base hit but Somerset held on to win it 5-4. Dwayne Pollok worked into the seventh inning in search of his nineteenth win but it was not to be, Jason Richardson took the loss in relief. The ballclub hosts Southern Maryland for three games on the weekend. Take care, thanks for reading.