September 14-16

The Atlantic League's regular season ended over the weekend, the league's as-needed travel team literally reached the end of its road as well. When the Bridgeport franchise dropped out at the end of 2017 the Road Warriors were activated for the first time since 2011, their odyssey began on April 27 and over 13,000 miles later it ended on this weekend in Lancaster. The team existed solely to balance the schedule, it wasn't built to be a contender and it wasn't the least bit surprising to see it post the league's worst record at 29-97 but there is much more to the story than just that. Every man on the roster is a consummate professional who understood what the circumstances were, as a group they are much better than any win-loss record could ever indicate. High Point, North Carolina is expected to join the league in 2019, if all goes as planned the Road Warriors will go dormant again until The Next Time. The games in this series were utterly meaningless in the final standings, the Barnstormers won all three rather easily by scores of 14-1, 11-1 and 13-5. The Stormers finish at 74-52, the second-best mark in the league behind only first-round playoff opponent Sugar Land. Before the game on Sunday afternoon the organization announced its end-of-season award winners, relief pitcher Garrett Granitz won the club's Community Service award and Ryan Casteel (team-leading .321 batting average) was voted by the fanbase as team MVP. Blake Gailen's 28 home runs and 91 RBI led the league, Blake was also the only ALPB player to appear in every game his team played. Darian Sandford topped the circuit with 82 stolen bases, Rico Noel was second with 53. On the mound Nate Reed's 13 wins led the league, Brooks Hall also won in double digits with 11. The ballclub hosts Sugar Land for the first two games of the Freedon Division championship series on Tuesday the 18th and Wednesday the 19th. Take care, thanks for reading.