July 30-31

Thursday night at the ballpark for the final game of the series with Bridgeport, the Barnstormers completed the three-game sweep with a 4-3 victory. Kent Matthes gave the ballclub a 1-0 lead with a first-inning single, a Lance Zawadzki home run in the fourth extended the lead to two. The Bluefish picked up a run in the fifth, in the bottom half Kevin Rivers singled and scored on an error to restore the two-run lead. Bridgeport battled back with runs in the sixth and ninth to tie the game, in the bottom of the ninth Zach Collier singled, moved to second base on a sacrifice bunt and scored the winner on another Matthes RBI hit. Shunsuke Watanabe started and worked six innings, Pete Andrelczyk was the pitcher of record. The newspaper story on Friday noted that this was the Barnstormers' twenty-fifth win in their last twenty-seven against Bridgeport, a steak dating back to the 2014 season. On Friday night the Somerset Patriots arrived at the ballpark sporting the Atlantic League's best record. Well-known figure skating star Johnny Weir was in attendance, the Stormers gave away a bobblehead figurine modeled after him. He threw out a first pitch before the game and signed autographs during it, they said the waiting line for his autograph stretched around the stadium (but I wouldn't know because I was sitting in Section 25 WATCHING THE GAME). On this night the Barnstormers prevailed by the same final score as Thursday's game. Anderson Feliz's RBI double in the second and a Kent Matthes fielders choice in the third gave the Stormers a two-run lead, a Somerset run in the fourth was offset by a Luke Hughes home run in the bottom half. The Patriots scored again in the fifth but Matthes replied in kind with a solo shot of his own to make it 4-2. Somerset made it close with a run in the eighth but the bullpen closed it out from there, Marcus Walden recorded the save for winning pitcher Bryan Morgado. The series continues through the weekend and wraps around to Monday evening. Take care, thanks for reading.