September 3-5

Monday was the annual Labor Day holiday which I have always considered the unofficial end of summer. Around here most of the schools have been back in session for at least a week, in my day we always went back the day after Labor Day. The daytime temperatures continue to be unseasonably hot, several schools in the area have been dismissing early because of the excessive heat. On Tuesday evening we had the captains meeting for the Fall dek hockey season at the rink, if all goes well we may be starting on the week of the 17th. Saw Jenny on Wednesday for lunch, in the evening I was on North Prince Street as the Barnstormers returned home for the first time in ten days. The Somerset Patriots had been the most recent visitor, on this night they were back for a scheduled doubleheader. Every team had two scheduled home twinbills in 2018 thanks to the shorter schedule, the Stormers had their other one in July against York. In most years there would be very few of these because the weather would necessitate enough doubledips of the makeup variety. Game #1 began at 6:00, the Stormers broke the ice in the bottom of the second when Ryan Casteel walked and scored on Josh Bell's RBI double. Back-to-back walks loaded the bases for Rico Noel, he was hit by the pitch forcing home Bell from third to make it 2-0. Blake Gailen's solo home run in the third upped the Stormer lead to three, in the top of the fifth the visiting Patriots rang up three of their own to tie the game. In the bottom half the Barnstormers replied with another three thanks to five consecutive walks and just one hit. Darian Sandford, Tyler Bortnick and Gailen all reached base via the free ticket, Casteel walked to plate Sandford and Bell's walk scored Bortnick. The next two batters were retired before Carlos Garcia's RBI single brought Gailen home making it 6-3 Stormers. Somerset had the final say with four runs in the seventh inning (the last inning of regulation) to take the opener 7-6, Huascar Brazoban was the losing pitcher in relief of starter Joe Gardner. It was almost 8:45 by the time the game ended, with an announced start time of 9:20 for the nightcap I decided to head home, get a shower and spend the rest of the night in the comfort of air conditioning. Take care, thanks for reading.