The Barnstormers were back home on Friday evening, the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs visited for the second time in the month of July. There were no weather issues on this night, the game started right on time and the visitors ended it almost from the proverbial word GO. The Crabs scored early and in bunches, in the middle of the third inning they were ahead by a count of 16-0. The Barnstormers scored in the third on a Nick Shumpert RBI double, they added two in the fourth on back-to-back home runs from Blake Allemand and Alejandro De Aza and four more in the seventh on Kelly Dugan's grand slam but through it all the Blue Crabs were never seriously threatened. The final score was 18-7, Augie Sylk started for the Stormers and took the decision. On Saturday night it was the Barnstormers' turn to take a big early lead, they scored four times in the first inning. One run scored on a wild pitch, another on an RBI hit by Devon Torrence and two more crossed the plate on a Blue Crab error. In the fourth Anderson De La Rosa went yard to deep left-field with the bases loaded to put the Stormers up 8-0. SM broke up the shutout with two runs in the eighth, the Stormers got one back in the bottom half on a Shumpert RBI double bringing the final score to 9-2. Nile Ball went seven scoreless innings for the win with relief support from Brent Teller (recently-added Rutgers University product) and Scott Shuman. It rained overnight into Sunday morning, every forecast and radar I saw indicated it would be cloudy in the afternoon but there would be no more rain until later in the day. We were in Rothsville for the hockey league's consolation and championship games, ten minutes before game time at noon DAMNED IF IT DIDN'T. It came quickly and rendered the rink unplayable, we had no choice but to postpone until Sunday the 8th and hope for better luck then. There was off-and-on rain all afternoon and into the early evening, at the ballpark the rubber game of the series went on in spite of the weather. I was not there and apparently there wasn't much to see, the Barnstormers lost 16-0 (sounds mighty familiar). Take care, thanks for reading.
