June 27-28

Friday night on North Prince Street at the ballpark, the Barnstormers hosted the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs. The Crabs were making their first visit to Lancaster in 2014, very unusual considering that it is late June. This was the second game of the series, the Stormers won the opener (a special kids' day afternoon game) on Thursday. The Barnstormers are celebrating their tenth year in the Atlantic League, part of that was the unveiling of a Ring Of Honor. On this night current Blue Crabs manager Lance Burkhart (a Barnstormer from 2005-2008) became the latest inductee, he joins previous honorees Ross Peeples ('05-current), Dwayne Pollok ('12-13), Blake Gailen ('12-14), Lloyd Turner ('08-10) and Tommy Everidge ('11-12). The ballgame itself was equal parts crazy and mundane. The Barnstormers put two on the board in the first on a Andrew Clark RBI hit and a SM error, the Crabs responded with three in the second to take the lead. The Stormers tied it in their half when Juan Apodaca reached on an error and scored on another Crab miscue, a third-inning two-run home run from Brock Kjeldgaard make it 5-3 for the home team. It stayed that way until the eighth when the Blue Crabs struck twice to tie the game, in their half the Stormers retook the lead when Lance Zawadzki was hit by the pitch and eventually scored on a fielders choice. The Crabs just wouldn't go away, they scratched out the tying run in the ninth and would win it in extra innings 7-6. Mark Rogers was the starting pitcher for the Stormers, Fu-Te Ni suffered the loss in relief. On Saturday we did our usual lunch in Quarryville, Jenny and her mother came into town for the evening's ballgame. After the craziness of Friday's game this night was tame by comparison as the Barnstormers recorded a 3-0 win. Wilson Batista accounted for all the runs with a solo home run in the first and a two-run shot in the third. Dan Osterbrock worked into the eighth inning for the win, Ross Peeples and Jason Urquidez finished it in relief. There was (of course) a fireworks show scheduled for after the game but we (of course) were gone before they ever went up. Take care, thanks for reading.