April 14-15

2016 marks the nineteenth season for the Atlantic League Of Professional Baseball, the twelfth for Lancaster as a member city and the tenth season for the York Revolution. Training camp opened on Monday, on Thursday the Barnstormers and the Revs met for an exhibition game at the ballpark on North Prince Street. The Stormers made playoffs in 2015 but lost in the semifinal round, the Revs finished out of the running for the postseason. A 1:00 start on a Thursday is not designed to draw a large attendance (exhibition games are not heavily promoted) but the turnout was respectable, there were several hundred hardcore fans in the park. Both teams have a fair share of returnees on their rosters, most of the players in this game are among those who are "on the bubble". The Revs led 5-4 after nine innings but the teams played another inning to allow some of the pitchers the extra work (rules in exhibition games tend to be rather lax, one inning actually ended before the third out was recorded). In the evening we finished week #1 of street hockey at the rink with three games, one of each category. The East game saw Yorgo's defeat the Blues, in the West the Killbots beat the Hammerheads and in the crossover game the Steamers prevailed over H&F Tire via overtime shootout. Each team has two games in the books, we're back at the rink on Monday the 18th. On Friday Jenny was in town, we had lunch at the sub shop at the plaza. In the afternoon we were back at McCaskey for baseball, the Red Tornado hosted Elizabethtown in a game that was over virtually from the proverbial word Go. E-town won 15-1, the game was stopped by the mercy rule after five innings. JPM's lone score came in the fifth, infielder Dylan Esh reached on a single and scored on an RBI hit from fellow infielder Derek Gonzalez. Head coach Tyler Horst used four pitchers, Daleuri Contreras started and took the loss with Jonny Dombach, Jonathan Metzler and Chris Rosario working in relief. The program has struggled in recent seasons, this loss drops the record to 0-7 and clearly the only way to go is up. The boys play next at home on Wednesday the 20th (I'm out because of Royals playoffs) and Thursday the 21st. Take care, thanks for reading.