March 28-31

Monday lunch at the mall as usual, the next day we were on the road north for a rare Tuesday night game at the Arena. The Elmira Jackals were making the last of their six regular-season visits, this one coming two months and five days later than originally scheduled. On this night the Royals struck in the first five minutes on a score by Ian Watters, in the early going of the second period the Jackals evened it at 1-1. Midway through the period Yannick Tifu put the Royals back ahead but another Elmira goal deadlocked the score at 2-2. The teams played through a scoreless third period setting the stage for overtime, in the extra session it took the Jackals all of twenty seconds to bag the winner and the 3-2 verdict. Adam Morrison was the goalie of record as the Royals fall to 33-24-10, 14-14-5 at home. The club has played twelve games that have gone beyond regulation time and have only two wins, both of those on the road. The boys host Norfolk for a back-to-back on April 2 and 3. On Wednesday it was a baseball day at McCaskey, the Red Tornado hosted Northern Lebanon (from Fredericksburg, about ten miles north of Lebanon proper) in a non-league contest. The game remained scoreless through the first six innings, in the seventh NL scratched out a run to take the lead. In the bottom of the inning JPM was down to their last out when Jeffrey Acevedo singled and scored a Michael Abrew double into the gap in left-center field. The momentum came crashing down in the eighth, Northern Lebanon put a five-spot on the board and won it 6-1. Daleuri Contraras pitched the first seven innings but didn't figure in the decision, David Padilla and Devin Ashba combined to work the eighth with Padilla taking the loss. JPM's record drops to 0-2, league play starts at home on April 4. Take care, thanks for reading.