September 16

Wednesday night baseball in Lancaster as the Barnstormers hosted the Blue Crabs in the series finale. The Crabs won the first-half division title but have fallen back somewhat in the second half, for the Stormers it has been quite the opposite. A win (or a York loss) on this night would clinch the second-half title, a Stormers playoff berth and a postseason rematch with Southern Maryland in the first round. SM put two on the board in the first but Lance Zawadzki's sac fly RBI in the bottom half made it 2-1. The Crabs went back up by two in the third, a Mike McDade sacrifice fly brought the Stormers back to within 3-2 after three. Single runs for the Crabs in the fifth and seventh made it 5-2, a solo home run by Juan Apodaca brought the Stormers within striking distance at 5-3 as the game moved into the eighth inning. In the bottom of the eighth the Barnstormers put together an incredible four-run rally. Two singles and a walk loaded the bases with one out for Kevin Rivers, his base hit scored one run to make it 5-4. Anderson Feliz followed with a two-run single to give the Stormers the lead, Apodaca's fielders choice groundout scored the final run. The 9-7 lead was preserved by Marcus Walden who worked a scoreless ninth to pick up the save for winning pitcher Pete Andrelczyk, Nate Reed had started and pitched the first six innings. The victory puts the Barnstormers in the postseason for a second straight year and the fourth time in five seasons under manager Butch Hobson, the win was also Butch's 1800th as a manager in professional baseball. His managerial career began back in 1987 in the New York Mets organization, from 1992 to 1994 he was in the big leagues as skipper of the Boston Red Sox. The Barnstormers open a now-meaningless series against Long Island on Thursday. Take care, thanks for reading.