April 29-30

Saturday lunch with Jenny and her mother, in the evening they made their first official visit to the ballpark in 2017 (they were also at the fanfest but that was a preseason event). A friend of mine from my baseball days in Berks County was there (her name is Tammy), she was with some friends in a suite and she invited us to join them. I have been on suite level at the ballpark once or twice over the years but for Jenny and Helen it was something new, with the weather as warm as it was we elected to stay inside with the air conditioning rather than sit outside on the upper deck. The game itself was a slugfest from the word go, the Barnstormers went up 1-0 in the first when Darian Sandford walked and scored on K.C. Hobson's RBI groundout. In the second former San Francisco property Vladimir Frias singled and touched home on a double by Anderson De La Rosa (from the LA Angels system). Sugar Land responded with two in the third but the Stormers replied in the bottom half with three of their own. Sanford singled and scored on Caleb Gindl's RBI hit, Hobson reached on a fielders choice and came home on a single by ex-bigleaguer Lastings Milledge, Blake Gailen walked and added the third run on a base hit by Garrett Weber (late of the Arizona Diamndbacks organization). The home team added on in the fourth when Sandford singled and scored on an error and in the fifth on a solo home run by Weber, a three-run seventh put the game away. Sean Halton doubled, Gailen singled him home and Milledge followed with another hit. Weber doubled to score Gailen, Milledge came home on a sac fly by De La Rosa to put the Stormers up 10-2. The Skeeters mounted a comeback with three in the eighth and one in the ninth but the Barnstormers held on for the 10-6 win. Ex-York Revolution pitcher Rommie Lewis went six innings for the victory, he was followed for an inning each by returnee Kevin Munson, Cody Hall (San Francisco) and Anthony Carter (Texas Rangers). The series wrapped up on Sunday afternoon but I was not there, the warm weather and a 2:00 start makes for a combination that doesn't agree with me anymore. Take care, thanks for reading.