July 25-26

The news services were carrying reports of major flooding from the heavy rains, most of it within our area was in the northwestern part of the county. Visited with Jenny for lunch on Wednesday, even though I was going southeast I stuck to the main roads to be on the safe side and there were no driving issues at all. After supper I was at the ballpark, the Barnstormers hosted the Long Island Ducks for what was supposed to be a doubleheader. I was arriving just as the opener was starting at 5:00, I'm usually there well in advance of game time but with the unusually early start on this day it was almost unavoidable. It was cloudy and darker to the south, in the middle innings it got much darker and the winds began to pick up. The Stormers trailed 1-0 in the third when Darian Sandford singled and came home on Blake Gailen's RBI hit, Long Island replied with single runs in the fourth and seventh to lead 3-1. By this point the rain had arrived and had been falling for several minutes, as the Barnstormers were coming to bat in the seventh it was coming down hard and play was halted. After a wait of better than two hours the game was called official and the second game became a casualty as well. Overnight into Thursday the rain FINALLY moved on, the day was bright and sunny. At 5:00 the Ducks and Stormers reconvened for another doubledip and on this night both games were actually played although it wasn't easy. The Barnstormers won the opener 5-0 behind two two-run home runs from K.C. Hobson, Ryan Casteel added an RBI base hit in support of winning pitcher John Anderson. The game ended at ten minutes before 7:00, the nightcap started at 7:40 (which seemingly was a good sign but it proved not to be). Long Island took a 1-0 lead in the second, in the bottom half the Stormers put up a four-spot. Ryan Casteel's solo home run was followed by a Carlos Garcia RBI single and Darian Sandford's two-run double. The Ducks got one back in the third before Blake Gailen's solo shot in the home third made it 4-2. The game fell apart in the middle innings, Long Island batted around in the both the fourth and fifth scoring nine runs in total for an 11-5 lead. The Stormers got a cosmetic run in the ninth on a Vladimir Frias RBI hit but it was way too little as the Ducks salvaged a doubleheader split, Joe Gardner was the Stormers' starting pitcher and took the loss. The game finally wound down at 10:30 but I was gone by then. Take care, thanks for reading.