May 4-6

Friday night baseball on North Prince Street, the Barnstormers were at home for the franchise's 14th home opener. Our friends from west of the river (better known as the York Revolution) were the opponent, the clubs had opposed each other in the Revs' home-opening series the previous week. The Revs won the Atlantic League championship in 2017, the Barnstormers missed the postseason despite posting the league's best overall record (and the story behind that is still a sore subject for many). The typical opening-night pageantry was followed by offensive fireworks, the Revs took a quick 1-0 lead in the first when returnee Alexi Casilla reached on a fielders choice and scored on an error. The Stormers responded loudly in the bottom half, Darian Sandford started it with a single, advanced to third on a stolen base and a wild pitch and scored on Tyler Bortnick's sac fly to tie the game. Blake Gailen walked, newcomer Joey Terdoslavich (ex-Atlants Brave) followed with a two-run shot onto the picnic area in right field to put the Stormers up 3-1. The line kept moving as former Cincinnati Red Kyle Waldrop and returnee Vladimir Frias reached on base hits, they both scored on a Revs error to make it 5-1. The Stormers added four in the second when Sandford, Bortnick and Gailen recorded consecutive singles, Sandford scoring on Gailen's hit to make it 6-1. Terdoslavich followed with another bomb to right giving him five RBI on the night and the Stormers a 9-1 advantage. The Revs got one back in the fourth on a Michael Burgess solo home run, the Stormers put up a three-spot in the bottom half on a Kyle Waldrop three-run home run. In the home fifth Rico Noel singled and scored on a Gailen RBI groundout for the Stormers' thirteenth run, in the Rev sixth former New York Yankee property Zach Wilson singled and scored on Burgess' second home run of the night, former Pittsburgh Pirate Jose Tabata singled and came home on ex-Stormer Travis Witherspoon's sac fly. to make it 13-5. Neither team scored from there as former big-leaguer Jonathan Albaladejo got the start and the win for the Stormers, Rev starter Mitch Atkins (ex-New York Met property) took the loss. The series continued on Saturday night with Jenny and her mother making their season debut. There were several occasions in 2017 when weather caused problems on Saturdays when they were in town, rain was in the forecast for this night and damned if it didn't happen. We were sitting on the hill in left field as usual when the rain started in the third inning, we moved in under the roof as the game continued. By the fifth inning it was getting late and Jenny was getting tired so we headed home. The game itself was never stopped despite the conditions, the Stormers won it 7-1. The Revs salvaged the finale in my absence on a dreary and rainy Sunday afternoon. Take care, thanks for reading.