September 5

It was very warm at Rossmere Stadium on Friday evening but that was a mere prelude to Saturday afternoon at McCaskey. The Red Tornado hosted Harrisburg in a 1:00 kickoff, the first Saturday afternoon game at JPM since 2010. The popular reason given for this game not being on Friday was apparently the visitors being unwilling to play a night game (why that would be is anybody's guess especially considering the weather). It was close to ninety degrees at game time and the press box was a sauna bath, I don't know how any of the players could have been comfortable in uniform on the field. It was not a good day at all for JPM, Harrisburg scored first and built a 20-0 halftime lead. In the third quarter another H-burg score extended the lead before the Red Tornado broke through on an 18-yard touchdown from quarterback Jathan Gonzalez (a member of the '14-15 junior varsity basketball squad). Harrisburg added two more TDs in the final period and rolled to a 40-6 decision, their second win in two seasons over JPM. The Red Tornado stays at home for week #2 against York on the 11th. The game ended around 4:45, I went home and took a shower because there was absolutely no other choice. At 5:45 I went over to the ballpark, the Barnstormers hosted the Camden Riversharks in game #2 of a four-game series. The Stormers won the opener on Friday, on this night they made it two in a row. An RBI double from Zach Collier and and a Kent Matthes base hit gave the home team a first-inning 2-0 advantage but the Sharks came back to tie in the second. Another RBI double by Collier in the bottom of the inning made it 3-2 Stormers, Camden scored single runs in the third and fourth to go ahead 4-3. That score held up until the bottom of the eighth inning, back-to-back home runs from Lance Zawadzki and Luke Hughes put the Barnstormers ahead 5-4. In the ninth Scott Patterson retired the side in order to save the win for fellow reliever Al Yevoli (recently added from the Chicago Cubs organization). Jenny and her mother were supposed to come into town for the football/baseball doubledip but it did not happen, Jenny had called on Friday night and said she planned on sleeping in because she wasn't feeling well. I can't say I blame her, between football and baseball it would have been a long day in the heat. I'd rather she be healthy than ill any day. Take care, thanks for reading.