June 19-20

Monday lunch at the mall started the new week in the accustomed manner, in the afternoon a line of thunderstorms moved through the area. I was watching the Internet for updates on the evening's scheduled ballgame in York, at 4:30 indications were that the game was still on. It was still raining in Lancaster when I left at 4:45 but the storm system was moving from west to east, as I was traveling in the opposite direction conditions improved accordingly. When I arrived at the ballpark the rain was over, the gates were open, the tarp had been rolled up and the game started right on time at 6:30, The Southern Maryland Blue Crabs were the opponent, they were the last ALPB club I had yet to see in 2017. The Crabs are based in Waldorf, Maryland (about twenty miles southeast of the District Of Columbia and fifty miles south of Baltimore), they are celebrating their tenth season in the Atlantic League. The crowd on this night in York was rather slight due to the weather but those in attendance saw a baseball game that resembled a roller-coaster ride. The Revs took a 2-0 lead in the first on a Michael Burgess two-run homer, the Crabs matched that in the second to draw even. In the bottom half Derrick Robinson walked and scored on an error to put York up 3-2. SM scored twice in the fourth to take a 4-3 advantage, in the fifth the Revs loaded the bases on consecutive walks issued to Alonzo Harris, Burgess and Jared Mitchell. Ryan Dent drew the fourth walk of the inning to force Harris home with the tying run, Robinson followed with a sac fly RBI to score Burgess. One-time St.Louis Cardinal property Luis Cruz's base hit plated Mitchell with the inning's third run to give the Revs a 6-4 lead but in the sixth the Crabs retaliated with another two-spot to tie maters at 6-6. In the eighth SM pushed home a single run and made it stand up for a 7-6 verdict, Luke Westphal took the loss for the Revolution in relief of starter Victor Mateo. On Tuesday the weather conditions were warm and sunny, in the evening we resumed dek hockey playoffs at the rink. On this night the East Division championship was decided as the UniLords completed the comeback from 0-2 down with a win over the Steamers, this game was in many ways a microcosm of the series itself. The UniLords trailed 5-2 with nine minutes left in regulation time, rallied to tie it and then scored the winning goal with one minute left. In the West Finals the Misfits beat the Riot to tie that series 1-1, game #3 is on Thursday the 22nd. Take care, thanks for reading.