April 26-28

It was dark and rainy on Friday morning, I made my errand run and stopped in at The Hotel. In the afternoon word came down that the scheduled 6:30 ballgame at McCaskey had been called and reset for Tuesday the 30th. They have tarps for the pitcher's mound, home plate and the three bases but the rest of the infield is exposed and takes a beating from the rain. At the professional level the budgets are more extensive, as the rain ended later in the afternoon the full infield tarpaulin at the ballpark on North Prince Street allowed the Barnstormers' 15th home opener to go on as scheduled. I of course had not planned to being in attendance but sometimes things work out that way. On this night the game-time temperature was in the high-50s but the wind howling in from left field made it feel much colder. The High Point Rockers were the opponent, the league's newest team playing the first game in their franchise history. In the Stormers half of the third Darian Sandford drew a walk followed by base hits from newcomer Dan Gamache (from the Washington Nationals organization) and returnee Caleb Gindl to load the bases with nobody out. Joe Terdoslavich (back with the club after spending the second half of 2018 in the NY Mets system) grounded into a double play scoring Sandford to give the home team a 1-0 lead. That would be the only score for the Barnstormers as the Rockers tallied two in the fourth, one in the seventh and four more in the eighth for a 7-1 win. Veteran returnee Jonathan Albaladejo (who is also serving as the club's pitching coach) started for the Stormers and took the loss. On Saturday we did our usual lunch in Quarryville, in the afternoon Jenny and Helen made what should be their last visit to The Hotel. In the evening they made their season debut at the ballpark for game #2 with High Point. On this night the Rockers came out rolling. by the middle of the sixth the Barnstormers were trailing 8-0. Dan Gamache doubled and scored on Caleb Gindl's RBI hit in the sixth to get the Stormers on the board, in the ninth a five-run uprising made the game a seat-squirmer. Player-coach Josh Bell started it with a walk, local product Zach Shank (graduate of Warwick HS in Lititz) singled and newcomer Parker Morin (from the KC Royals chain) walked to load the bases. A sacrifice fly by newcomer Melvin Mercedes (Oakland A's) scored Bell to make it 8-2, Gamache followed with a two-run double scoring Shank and Morin, Gindl batted next and went yard to right-center to bring the Stormers to within 8-6. The High Point bullpen held on from there to claim victory, Stormers starter Jake McCasland (from the SF Giants system) was the pitcher of record. The Stormers salvaged the finale on Sunday but I was absent taking a personal day at home. Take care, thanks for reading.