June 1-2

The sixth month of 2017 started on a Thursday, in the evening we completed the dek hockey league's regular season. Winners on this night included the Kings over the Owls, the Steamers over the Hammerheads, the UniLords over the Misfits and the Pub Dawgs over the Riot. As the league's supervisor I cannot play favorites or take sides but I must admit I was glad to see the Pub Dawgs get a win. They have played in the league for many years with largely the same nucleus and have enjoyed little success yet each season they return with no complaints because they simply WANT TO PLAY (case in point: this game was utterly meaningless in the standings yet fourteen of the eighteen players on their roster showed up for it). The Dawgs were winless in the spring of '16 and only won two games in the fall, they entered play on this night at 0-13 and out of the playoff picture so it was nice to see them finish on a positive note. We start playoffs on Tuesday the 6th with the East Division Finals (Steamers/UniLords) and the West Semifinals (Kings/Riot and Hammerheads/Misfits). On Friday the Barnstormers continued their homestand as the York Revs traveled across the river for the first installment of the Atlantic League's War Of The Roses. The winner of the season series receives the Community Cup, the Stormers are the current cupholders with consecutive wins in 2015 and '16. On this night on North Prince Street it was all Barnstormers from the word Go. In the first inning Darian Sandford singled and stole second base, Rico Noel followed with a walk. Caleb Gindl's RBI groundout scored Sandford, K.C. Hobson's base hit plated Noel for a 2-0 lead. Trayvon Robinson went yard in the second to extend the advantage to three, in the fourth the Stormers added two more. Garrett Weber started it with a triple, consecutive walks to Robinson and Anderson De La Rosa loaded the bases. Sandford drew a walk to force Weber home, Robinson scored on a Noel groundout to make it 5-0. The Stormers posted another two-spot in the sixth, Robinson walked and scored on a Sandford RBI single, a two-base hit by Noel plated Sandford to up the lead to seven. K.C. Hobson's solo home run in the seventh put the lid on an 8-0 Stormers victory, Jarret Leverett went six inning for the win while Rev starter Frank Gailey suffered the loss. The clubs meet again on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, the series finishes with a "wraparound" game on Monday the 5th. Take care, thanks for reading.