August 25-27

The race for the second-half division titles in the Atlantic League is in high gear, as the weekend began the four clubs in the Freedom Division were separated by just seven games in the standings. On Friday the Barnstormers traveled west across the Susquehanna for a head-to-head series with the Revolution, the York ballclub holding first place with the Stormers two games behind. In the Friday opener the Barnstormers rallied from two runs down in the ninth to tie and ultimately won in extra innings 5-4. The next night marked a rare Saturday appearance in York for me, this was Jenny and Helen's annual visit (I get them there one game each year preferably when the Stormers are the opponent). On this night the visitors struck first, Sean Halton's RBI single in the third scored Garrett Weber putting the Stormers up 1-0. In the fourth the Stormers took full advantage of a bases-loaded nobody-out situation, one run scored on a wild pitch before Anderson De La Rosa'a two-run single and an RBI hit from Cole Garner made it 5-0. In the home fourth Isaias Tejeda got the Revs on the board with a two-run home run, in the fifth the Stormers got them back on RBI hits by De La Rosa and Beau Amaral to go up 7-2. In the home sixth Telvin Nash (former Rev recently returned from the Chicago White Sox organization) went yard with a man on, two batters later Dayron Varona hit a solo shot to bring the Revolution within 7-5. The Barnstormers' bullpen shut it down from there, Tommy Shirley went six innings for the win with support from Kevin Munson, ex-Pittsburgh Pirate property John Kuchno and Scott Shuman (save). Victor Mateo started for the Revs and struggled through four innings of work taking the loss. The teams entered the Sunday finale tied for the top spot in the division, the Revolution salvaged it to go back ahead by one game. The league season ends on September 17 and there is a lot of ball left to be played including one last Stormers-Revs series in York on the final weekend. From here on out the only thing for sure is nothing is for sure. Take care, thanks for reading.