September 14-15

Monday morning lunch at the mall, in the evening the Barnstormers returned home for the final seven days of the regular season. Coming into play on Monday the Stormers' magic number to clinch a playoff spot stood at four, any combination of Lancaster wins and York Revolution losses totaling that number would eliminate the Revs from playoff contention. The Southern Maryland Blue Crabs (the first-round opponent for the Stormers/Revs survivor) were in town for a three-game set. In the Monday opener the Barnstormers took a 2-0 lead in the second on RBI hits by Brian Cavazos-Galvez and Luke Hughes, a Kevin Rivers home run in the seventh made it 3-0. The Crabs broke the shutout with a run in the ninth but the Barnstormers held on for the 3-1 win, Pete Andrelczyk won it in relief of starter Daniel Moskos with Marcus Walden recording the save. Meanwhile in York the Revolution defeated the Long Island Ducks, at game time on Tuesday the Stormers' magic number stood at 3. On this night the Blue Crabs went up 2-0 in the top of the first, the Barnstormers replied emphatically in the bottom half. Jerry Owens singled and scored on a triple by Zach Collier, Kent Matthes' RBI hit scored Collier to tie the game. RBI singles Lance Zawadzki and Charlie Cutler gave the Stormers the lead, a fifth run scored on a Yusuke Kajimoto infield groundout. Owens capped the uprising with a two-run double to make the score 7-2. The teams traded single runs in the fourth, the Stormers' coming on an Owens triple and a Tyler Bortnick RBI single. Another hit from Bortnick (who started the season in Lancaster and recently returned from a stint in the Seattle Mariners system) in the fifth gave the Barnstormers a 9-3 lead. Starting pitcher Joe Gardner was touched for two runs in the eighth but from there Scott Patterson and Al Yevoli combined to close the door on a 9-5 Barnstormer win. In York the Revolution lost to Long Island, that result clinched a playoff spot for the Ducks and knocked the Stormers' magic number down to 1. The Stormers-Crabs series concludes on Wednesday with a possible clinching scenario in place. Take care, thanks for reading.