September 26-28

High school football season reached its midpoint on Friday evening at McCaskey as the Red Tornado hosted Hempfield in the first of three straight at home. Over the years JPM has been a program that has struggled to find consistency, on this night it all came together at once in a surprisingly one-sided win. The Red Tornado scored first on a 59-yard TD run by La'Detrius Sibley, in the second quarter Sibley scored again from a yard out to increase the lead to 14-0. Kobe Gantz's TD reception late in the half gave JPM a 21-0 advantage at the break. The third quarter was scoreless, Hempfield finally broke through in the fourth to get within fourteen but an 86-yard catch-and-run from Sibley to Kyaire Bynum salted away an entertaining 27-7 victory. A major factor in the win was the strong defensive effort, that has been one of the weak areas in recent seasons. The club's record improves to 2-3 overall (1-1 within the division), the boys host Penn Manor on October 3. On Saturday I was with Jenny and her mother for our usual weekend lunch, in the evening Marty and I went west to York for playoff baseball. The Revolution hosted Sugar Land in game #4 of their semifinal series, the Revs held a 2-1 advantage in the best-of-five and were looking to clinch a berth in the finals. On this night the Revs and Skeeters battled through nine innings of scoreless ball, in the tenth Sugar Land put a run on the board and squared the series with a tough 1-0 win. Sunday was spent at home with football on TV and keeping tabs on the Atlantic League playoffs. Both semifinals were heading to fifth-and-deciding games, in York the Revs lost 5-3 to Sugar Land while in Somerset the Barnstormers eliminated the Patriots to advance to the championship series. The Stormers' victory was especially impressive, they were down two games to one in the series and trailed 3-0 in the eighth inning of game #4. A pinch-hit grand slam home run by Yusuke Kajimoto gave the Barnstormers an improbable 4-3 victory, in the decider Chris Schwinden pitched a complete game in a dominating 9-1 win. The best-of-five championship series begins on the 30th with the first two games in Sugar Land, the series moves east on Friday the 3rd. Take care, thanks for reading.