September 17-18

Had lunch with Jenny and her mother on Thursday, Helen turned 78 on the 15th. The annual Solanco Fair opened earlier in the week, after lunch we went to the fairgrounds and walked around. A lot of the merchants offer small giveaway items, I always take the opportunity to stock up on pens (for the street hockey rink) and pencils (for basketball season at McCaskey). On Thursday evening the Barnstormers continued their homestand, the Long Island Ducks (fresh from a series in York) were the opponent. This final regular-season series is virtually meaningless since the Atlantic League playoffs are set, the Ducks meet Somerset in the semifinals while the Stormers match up with Southern Maryland. On this night the Barnstormers trailed 1-0 in the third, an RBI double by Zach Collier tied the score. Run-scoring hit by Lance Zawadzki and Anderson Feliz put the Stormers up 3-1 but Long Island rallied back in the sixth to tie the game. In the seventh Kent Matthes delivered a solo home run to put the Barnstormers back ahead 4-3, that would prove to be the final score. Starting pitcher Edwin Carl (recently added from the American Association) worked seven innings for the win in his Stormers debut, Scott Gracey and Scott Patterson (save) pitched an inning each. On Friday I was absent from the ballgame because that night at this time of year means high school football. McCaskey was playing at Reading High and of course anytime I'm in Reading for anything other than hockey I invariably run into people I know. It's often been said that in football you can't win if you can't score and you can't score if you don't have the ball. That was it in a nutshell for JPM, through the forty-eight minutes of play McCaskey had offensive possession for only fifteen. In the third quarter Jathan Gonzalez found Kobe Gantz in the end zone for a touchdown but it was the lone score for JPM in a 26-7 loss. The club's record drops to 1-2, league play begins at home on the 25th against Wilson (never a easy assignment under the best of circumstances). Take care, thanks for reading.