July 4-6

Monday the 4th was the nation's 240th birthday, I celebrated in the usual Monday manner with lunch at the mall. The Barnstormers were scheduled to open a series against Long Island, around 5:30 or so it began to rain. By 6:00 it was coming down hard and steady, I elected to stay in on the assumption that the game would be delayed if in fact it was played at all. Later in the evening I saw online that they not only were playing but the game had started right on time even though the rain had not ever completely stopped. Shortly before 9:00 I heard the scheduled fireworks going up, on Tuesday morning I read that the game had gone into a rain delay after four innings so they shot the fireworks and since it was still raining the game was called at that point. Since it was not an official game it will be redone as part of a doubleheader in August. On Tuesday the rain had moved on, the sun was out and it was a perfect night for baseball. On this night the teams met for a previously-scheduled doubleheader, I rode with Marty to the ballpark for the 6:00 start. In the opener the visiting Ducks took a 1-0 lead in the third, in their half the Stormers tied it on a Kevin Ahrens RBI double. Ahrens would later score on a sac fly by Caleb Gindl to put the home team up by one. In the fourth Long Island replied with two of their own, they carried that 3-2 lead into the bottom of the seventh (the last regulation inning of a doubleheader game). Sean Halton was hit by the pitch to start the inning, Lance Zawadzki followed with a hit to put runners at first and third. Mike McDade's sac fly scored Halton to make it 3-3, with two out Ahrens singled off the second baseman's glove to score Zawadzki with the game-winner. Pete Andrelczyk pitched a scoreless inning picking up the win in relief of starter Kelvin De La Cruz. The nightcap started shortly before 9:00, since Marty had a 4:00am wakeup call for work we called curfew at that point. Saw on Wednesday morning where Long Island won the nightcap 7-2, they weren't done until well after 11:00 (five-plus hours for a doubleheader is about par for the course). Jenny and I had our usual lunch visit on Wednesday, that was the extent of the day's activity. Over the next little while things figure to be slow, both the Barnstormers and the York ballclub are away until Friday the 15th. Take care, thanks for reading.