April 30

Saturday lunch in Quarryville with Jenny and her mother, Helen has been under the weather somewhat and with the prospect of a chilly evening they elected not to come into town for the ballgame. At the ballpark in the evening it was more comfortable than Friday night largely because there was little if any wind. On this night the Revs and Stormers met for game #2 of the weekend series, after the hi-jinks of the night before this game was mundane in comparison. The Barnstormers took the early 1-0 lead in the first inning, Colton Shaver walked and scored on Andretty Cordero's base hit. In the Revs third Elmer Reyes singled and touched home on a Yefri Perez RBI groundout to tie the game, in the home fifth Shaver singled and scored on Kelly Dugan's two-run home run giving the Stormers a 3-1 advantage. In the sixth the teams traded runs, the Revs' Nellie Rodriguez singled and scored on an error but the Stormers got it back on a solo home run by ex-MLBer Mark Zagunis. In the eighth the visitors closed to within 4-3, Josue Herrera singled and came home on another error. In the bottom half the Stormers replied on a Connor Lien triple and an Anderson Feliz sacrifice fly. In the ninth Scott Shuman struck out the side to end the 5-3 Barnstormer win, he earned the save for winning pitcher Tyler Suellentrop (Nile Ball had started but left after four innings), Rev starter Jorge Martinez took the loss. The series wraps up on Sunday afternoon, I will be in Rothsville for street hockey. There was one other piece of good news on Saturday night: the Royals won in Portland to take a 3-2 lead in the playoff series with Maine, after winning the first two at home the boys lost two games in Portland before taking the win in game #5. The series returns to the Arena for game #6 on Monday the 2nd with the Royals in a position to advance to the division finals. Take care, thanks for reading.

April 29

Friday night at the ballpark on North Prince Street for Opening Night of the eighteenth year of Atlantic League baseball in Lancaster. The league started with six clubs in 1998 and now has ten teams for the first time ever. On this night the Barnstormers hosted the perennial geographic rival York Revolution for the first of thirty-two meetings during the regular season (the full schedule consists of 132 games, somehow the idea of playing 24% of them against ONE opponent seems a bit much but maybe that's just me). It was a chilly night with temps in the high 50s and a breeze in from center but that didn't dim the spirits of a crowd of better than 5000. Those fans saw the home team storm out (weak pun intended) to a 6-0 first-inning lead on the way to a wild 23-7 (that's twenty-three to seven) victory. Leading the way for the Stormers were returnees Kelly Dugan (two doubles, a home run and six RBI), LeDarious Clark (four hits including a double and two RBI) and Jake Hoover (three hits including two doubles and five RBI). Newcomers Colton Shaver (three hits, three runs scored and two ribbies), Trace Loehr (two hits, three walks and four runs scored), Connor Lien (two doubles and two runs) and Andretty Cordero (1-for-1 with an RBI and a run scored) were in on the act as well as Anderson Feliz (a Stormer in 2015 returning from a stint in the Dominican Republic) who had two hits, two RBI and three runs scored. For the Revs returnee Melky Mesa had a hit, a run scored and two RBI, newcomers Zach Rucusin (two hits and two runs), Troy Stokes (two hits, two runs) and Paul Mondesi (a base hit and two runs scored) also factored in the offense, most of which came late in the game after the issue was long decided. The starting pitchers (who were both long gone by the end) figured in the decision, Brent Teller for the Stormers and Austin Nicely for the Revolution. Quick trivia: in 2021 these teams met on opening night in Lancaster with the Revs winning 18-2, on this night the Stormers returned the favor with a sixteen-run win of their own (what are the odds?). The series continues on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. Take care, thanks for reading.

April 26-28

Jenny was in town on Tuesday morning for a medical appointment, the access van brought her in and I took her home for a stop for lunch along the way. There was rain in the forecast, it didn't arrive until mid-afternoon with game time at McCaskey set for 4:15. Temperatures were similar to Monday but there was hardly any wind at all, only the slightest hint of a breeze from the northwest. This day at the ballfield reminded me of horror stories from my days in pro baseball, it was one of those that makes you question your career choices. For beginners the game started ten minutes late because one of the umpires was late arriving, for seconds the rain was on-and-off the entire time and for thirds the game itself didn't wind down until almost 7:00. Elizabethtown was the opponent for a divisional crossover, they carried a 6-0 lead into the bottom of the sixth. JPM got on the board with Elliot Fluck reaching on a single and scoring on a sac fly from Alex Ruiz but that was the only run for the Good Guys, E-town won it 6-1. Tobe Kuntz got the start and suffered the loss with three innings of work, Lars Holland took over in the fourth and finished it. The rain continued through the evening hours, by Wednesday morning it was gone and replaced with sunshine and high winds. In the afternoon at the ballfield the mini-homestand concluded with Manheim Township visiting for a division game. At 4:15 it was fifty degrees with winds swirling from the northwest at better than twenty miles per hour, being upstairs in the booth spared me from feeling the wind but since the booth is not insulated it's still chilly. Offensive highlights for the Red Tornado were very few on this day, the club managed only four baserunners in a 4-0 loss. Braulio Rivera started on the mound, pitched a complete game and deserved a better fate. The saving grace on this day was that the game was over shortly before 6:00, for the second consecutive day I was glad to be home although the reasons were very different (if the rain doesn't get you the wind and cold will). Thursday was a day of rest, the morning run was all there was but the weekend should be busy. Take care, thanks for reading.

April 25

Monday afternoon at McCaskey for the first game of high school baseball's own particular version of a three-in-three, Conestoga Valley was the opponent for a divisional crossover. It's hard to believe the season is three-fifths of the way through, this was the thirteenth game of the twenty on the schedule. At 4:15 gametime temperatures were in the low 60s with a sharp breeze straight in from centerfield, I had the pressbox window open just enough to be able to hear the home plate umpire for pitch calls. JPM got off to a good start with a three-spot in the first inning. Elliot Fluck reached on an error to get it started, Braulio Rivera singled and Alex Ruiz walked to load the bases. Landis Fluck's RBI hit scored younger brother Elliot to make it 1-0, Elias Morales reached on a throwing error allowing Braulio and Alex to touch home with the inning's second and third runs. CV got on the board with single runs in the third and fourth but that was all the scoring there would be on this day as JPM held on 3-2. Elliot Fluck started on the mound and worked six innings for the win, Elias Morales finished it with a perfect three-strikeout seventh to pick up the save. It's the club's first win at home in five tries, the gauntlet continues with Elizabethtown (makeup game) on Tuesday and Manheim Township (regular schedule) on Wednesday. Take care, thanks for reading.

April 22-24

Friday night at the Arena for game #2 against Maine, another typically intense playoff game but nowhere near as testy as Wednesday had been. This game was a virtual rerun of game #1 except for the last moments, Trevor Gooch struck on the power play five minutes in giving the Royals a 1-0 lead. In the early going of the second period Kenny Hausinger took advantage of another man-advantage to up the lead to two, the crowd was still celebrating when Frank Dichiara lit the lamp twenty-nine seconds later giving the Royals a 3-0 cushion. The game stayed right there into the closing minutes, the Mariners pulled the goalie for the extra attacker but on this night there would be no last-game heroics for the visitors as the Royals closed out the 3-0 shutout for Logan Flodell. The club takes a 2-0 series lead to Portland for the middle three games, due to previously booked arena events the third game is not until April 28. On one hand the breather is good because it gives the team opportunity for quality practice time, on the other hand we can only hope it doesn't disturb the club's momentum. Saturday was a quiet day, I had supper at home on a Saturday for the first time since March 12. On Sunday we opened the spring season for the over-40 league at Lions Park in Rothsville, first time we've been there since November. We have four teams playing a nine-game schedule, on this day Hillside beat Township and Ephrata defeated Warwick. Forty-eight players participated in the fall season, on this day we had twenty-seven appear for the spring openers. The main topic of conversation seemed to be what's going on with our league in Lancaster, Don and I told them what we've been saying all along: the LEAGUE itself is not dead if we can help it but we will never play at Reservoir Park again. We were on hiatus for a year-and-a-half thanks to The BS, if it takes that long to find a new home we'll wait it out. Take care, thanks for reading.

April 20-21

Wednesday night at the Arena for game #1 of the Division Semifinals, the first home playoff game for the Royals since 2018. The visiting Maine Mariners qualified as the division's #4 finisher, they won their last three regular-season games (including a victory over the Royals in Portland on the 13th) to finish with a .514 points percentage. For the Royals it's the fourteenth postseason appearance in the club's twenty years, for the Mariners it's the first playoff appearance since the franchise joined the league in 2018-19 (although both teams would have qualified the following year before The BS ruined everything). On this night the Royals drew first blood with Kenny Hausinger scoring on the power play midway through the first period. In the second period Brayden Low bagged a pair of goals to put the Royals up by three but to their credit the pesky Mariners refused to go quietly. In the closing moments Maine pulled the goalie for the extra attacker and scored twice within two minutes to draw within one. With thirty-seven seconds left in regulation time the Royals were penalized, the Mariners attacked six-on-four but Logan Flodell and company were able to hold the fort as the Royals took the crucial opening-game win 3-2. It's the Royals' first playoff W in exactly five years (a 3-2 win in Brampton on April 20, 2017) and the first on home ice since the first game of that series. It didn't take long for the playoff "hate factor" to develop, the game was contentious from the get-go with confrontations at just about every other whistle (the clubs met four times in the last week of the regular season so they are not exactly strangers to each other). Game #2 is on Friday the 22nd at the Arena, after that the clubs travel to Portland for the next three. Take care, thanks for reading.

April 18-19

There was rain in the forecast for Monday afternoon, the ballgame at McCaskey was postponed ahead of time and it proved to be the right choice. By (what would have been) 4:15 game time it was coming hard and lasted through most of the evening. The rain was gone on Tuesday morning but it was chilly and windy, in late afternoon we were at the ballfield for a game rescheduled from April 6. Penn Manor visited for a divisional game that started out as a disaster but ended as a classic for reasons both good and bad. The game began at 4:15 with temperatures in the mid-40s and the wind hawking from the northwest at twenty miles per hour. Penn Manor jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first and added six more before the Red Tornado came alive in the fifth inning. Tobe Kuntz started it with a double, Orion Frailey was hit by the pitch and Elliot Fluck walked to load the bases. Braulio Rivera's sac fly scored Kuntz from third, Landis Fluck followed with a two-run double scoring Frailey and younger brother Elliot to make it 8-3. PM scored five in the sixth to go up 13-3, all they needed was to retire JPM scoreless in their half to end the game via mercy rule but it didn't happen. Base hits by Cole Hatfield, Frailey and Elliot Fluck loaded the bases, Alex Ruiz drew a walk plating Cole to keep the game alive at 13-4. In the seventh the Red Tornado put together a rally for the ages, it started with Landis Fluck reaching on a strikeout-passed ball and consecutive walks to Elias Morales and Hatfield loading the bases with none out. Tobe Kuntz hit a sac fly scoring Fluck, Frailey followed with a two-run single to make it 13-7. Ian Santos kept the line moving with a walk, after the second out Alex Ruiz doubled to score Frailey and Santos bringing JPM to within four at 13-9. Adrian Rodriguez drew a walk and Landis Fluck continued the uprising with another two-run double chasing home Ruiz and Rodriguez. Elias Morales kept it going by drawing the fifth walk of the inning, Hatfield capped the rally with another two-rule double scoring Fluck and Morales to tie the score (incredibly and unbelievably) at 13-13 with the last six runs hitting the plate after the second out. Into extra innings we went, in their half of the eighth PM went back ahead 15-13. In the bottom half JPM put together a two-out rally that ended suddenly on a fielders-choice groundout where the runner clearly beat the throw and was ruled out. Any umpire can miss a call but this was egregious, it was almost as if he was saying "I'm cold and I'm tired, I want to go home". Elias Morales pitched the eighth inning and took the loss, Elliot Fluck had started with Frailey and Noah Stoycos working middle relief. With it all I walked into my house over three hours after the game started, I was cold and I was tired and glad to be home (sarcasm intended). Take care, thanks for reading.

April 16-17

The Royals finished the road portion of their schedule on Friday night with an overtime win in Glens Falls, the victory clinched first place in the Division (for the first time since 2014) and first overall in the Eastern Conference. The club's final mark on the road was an excellent 21-9-5 (with one postponement in December ultimately canceled completely). On Saturday the Adirondack Thunder visited the Arena for the back end of the home-and-home series and the final home game of the regular season. Before faceoff we had a brief ceremony honoring longtime Royals broadcaster Pat Richards who has done color commentary since 2003, Pat is moving to be closer to family in South Carolina. The game itself may have been somewhat anticlimactic but you would have never known it, although the Thunder had the division's poorest record they battled to the bitter end as the professionals they are. Kevin Conley scored the game's only goal in the second period and Hayden Hawkey made it stand up for a hard-earned 1-0 victory. The shutout is Hawkey's first of the season and the team's third, Pat Nagle (vs Norfolk in November) and Tristan Cote-Cazenave (over Worcester in December) accounted for the others. The final mark at home is 24-8-4, the overall record finishes at 45-17-9. The ninety-nine points earned equals the franchise record set in 2012-13 and the .697 points percentage is a new franchise high (thanks to that one game canceled in December). The franchise has enjoyed a great comeback season since sitting out the previous year because of The BS but now the next order of business is the division semifinals, the Maine Mariners are the opponent (the other division semifinal is an all-Canada matchup, Trois-Rivieres meeting Newfoundland). The first two games of the best-of-seven series are at the Arena on the 20th and 22nd, the middle three are in Portland with the final two (if needed) back home on May 2nd and 4th. It's often been said that there are three seasons in hockey: the preseason, the regular season and the REAL season. As they used to say on television, Stay Tuned. Take care, thanks for reading.

April 13-15

The Atlantic League began its training camps earlier in the week, on Wednesday afternoon I was at the ballpark on North Queen Street for the first exhibition game. The Barnstormers hosted the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, the game started at 1:00 before a gathering of (I'm guessing) less than one hundred. These games are never heavily advertised but the diehard fans are there no matter what. Ross Peeples is back as Stormers manager, his preseason roster lists sixteen players who have been with the club previously. The ALPB has ten teams in the fold for 2022 with the addition of new franchises in Staten Island, New York and a second team playing in Lexington, Kentucky (which is a story in itself for another time). The Stormers won the game 6-5, the home opener is on Friday the 29th. After supper I was at McCaskey, Ephrata visited for a 7:00 divisional crossover game. Before first pitch we had a small ceremony in honor of the late Chris Adams, a 2009 Ephrata grad who played ball there and later coached at both Ephrata and McCaskey. In the game itself Ephrata took a 1-0 lead in the first, in the bottom half JPM evened it on Alex Ruiz's RBI double scoring Elliott Fluck who had walked to start the inning. From there it was all the visitors, a single run in the fourth followed by a two-run sixth and a seven-run seventh put away an 11-1 decision. Orion Frailey started on the mound and took the loss with Yanmanuel Gutierrez and Elias Morales working in relief. The boys have back-to-back home games on the 18th (regular schedule) and 19th (makeup). Take care, thanks for reading. 

April 11-12

At this point we will take a pause to discuss what could very well be (if you'll forgive the cliche) The End Of An Era. In 1979 the Lancaster Recreation Commission opened a street hockey rink at Reservoir Park, the league continued to play there when Lancaster Dek Hockey Incorporated was formed and took over operations in 2000. I have supervised the league since the beginning and the rink has regrettably always been a target for vandalism, in the early days it wasn't unusual to find broken bottles on the macadam playing surface and biological waste (canine or otherwise) in the team benches. In 2002 the benches and penalty box were completely enclosed and a fence was erected on the side of the rink facing the street which helped somewhat but it still didn't stop anybody who absolutely wanted to get inside. We did not play at the rink from November of 2019 to September of 2021 thanks to The BS, when we returned there were massive repairs required because the city's homeless and hoodlum populations made themselves to home. The season ended on a Wednesday in November, I happened by the following Monday and discovered the backs of the benches ripped open and kids running around all over the rink. Over the winter the situation did nothing but get worse, there is supposed to be some sort of neighborhood association that watches out for and reports things like this but strangely they seem to turn a blind eye whenever the rink is trespassed upon. A few weeks ago we put the word out for a league meeting at the rink on the morning of April 9 to discuss our options and the future of the league, five people showed up. The damage they witnessed is easily the worst we've ever dealt with, the repairs made the previous fall were a picnic by comparison. We all agreed that if (and that's IF) we made the repairs it would not be worth it in the long run because the vandals would only come back and rip it down all over again. Right now the future of the league is undetermined, it is not dead (and won't be if we can help it) but our time at Reservoir Park is OVER. Forty-two years is a long time and it was a hell of a run but we can no longer play there because the Dirty Bastards simply won't allow it. There are other places within the county which are possibilities for the league to play but right now the only thing for sure is nothing. Take care, thanks for reading.

April 9-10

Back at the Arena on Saturday night, the Maine Mariners returned for game #2 of the weekend series. This was Wall of Honor Night, the Royals organization celebrated its twentieth season (of actual on-ice competition) with the unveiling of an all-time team selected by fan vote. The group included coaches Larry Courville and Kirk MacDonald, forwards Yannick Tifu, Olivier Labelle and Ryan Cruthers, defensemen Adam Comrie and Nick Luukko plus goaltender Riley Gill. The game began much as Friday's had started, goals by Thomas Ebbing and Brad Morrison gave the Royals a 2-0 lead after one period. In the second Ebbing struck again to make it 3-0, after the Mariners got on the board Patrick Bajkov extended the lead to 4-1. Two goals for the visitors made it 4-3 at the second intermission, in the third period the game ended similarly to Friday when Patrick McNally hit the empty net with thirty seconds left to put the game away at 5-3.On Sunday afternoon the series finished and a different kind of game was in store. It was each team's third game in three days, with a 3:00 start figured in both teams were running on fumes. There was no score until late in the second period, the Mariners finally broke through and carried a 1-0 lead into the third period. Trevor Gooch took advantage of a giveaway in the offensive zone to tie the score with eleven minutes left, in the final minute the Royals were awarded a power play opportunity but could not convert before regulation time expired. The man-advantage carried over into overtime which ended eighteen seconds after it started, Patrick Bajkov got a break into the zone and fired home the OTGWG for the 2-1 win. As the Royals celebrated the penalized Maine player left the penalty box and skated directly towards the referee, his teammates got him out of there before anything escalated any further. Logan Flodell earned both victories in net as the Royals complete the weekend sweep, the mark stands at 43-16-9 overall and 23-8-4 at home. The club plays in Portland on the 13th and in Glens Falls on the 15th, the regular season wraps up at home on Saturday the 16th. Take care, thanks for reading. 

April 8

Friday evening at the Arena for the opener of the last three-in-three on the home schedule. There were five of these on the original slate, one of them didn't come off back in December thanks to The BS (I used to refer to it as The Circumstances but nowadays I believe The BS is a better description). On this night the Maine Mariners made the first of their three regular-season appearances, the other two are on this weekend as well (gotta love the ECHL schedule). The Royals came out "guns a-blazing" in the opening moments, two goals by Trevor Gooch and a single marker from Brayden Low gave the Good Guys a 3-0 lead before the game was twelve minutes old. The visitors from The Pine Tree State got in the board in the second period, in the game's dying seconds Frank DiChiara hit the empty net to salt away a tougher-than-it-looks 4-1 win. University Of Connecticut product Darion Hanson (recently signed by and on loan from the Phantoms) played his first game as a professional and earned the win in net. The home record improves to 21-8-4, overall the club is 41-16-9 and as previously noted the guys from Portland are back for games on Saturday and Sunday. Take care, thanks for reading. 

April 4-7

A typically mundane beginning to the new week, on Tuesday night rain moved into the area and lasted into Wednesday morning. In the afternoon it was announced that the ballgame at McCaskey was postponed due to wet grounds and reset for April 19. That's good for me because I would have been absent on this day but I'm good for the 19th. At the Arena in the evening the Royals hosted the Adirondack Thunder for the eighth of ADK's nine visits. Earlier in the week the club added another collegian to the roster, on this night University of Nebraska-Omaha product Kevin Conley made his professional debut. He immediately made an impression three minutes into the game with his first goal as a pro giving the Royals a 1-0 lead. Patrick Bajkov upped the lead to two later in the period, midway through the second stanza Mason Millman found the net making it 3-0. The Thunder rallied back to within 3-2 early in the third but Bajkov's second strike of the night restored the Royals' two-goal advantage. In the closing minutes Adirondack pulled the goalie for the extra attacker and closed to within 4-3 but from there Logan Flodell and the defense corps held the fort for the club's fortieth win. It's the first time the Royals have reached that plateau since 2016-17 and the eighth time in the franchise's twenty years. The mark stands at 40-16-9, 20-8-4 at home. The boys stay home for the weekend as the Maine Mariners visit for a three-in-three. The rain returned overnight into Thursday, the morning errand run was all that happened on a day better suited for ducks than human beings. Take care, thanks for reading. 

April 1-3

April Fool's Day concluded a week in which the weather was a joke all its own, daytime highs in the 30s on Monday gave way to temps in the 70s on Thursday. By Friday we were back down into the 50s and even chillier in the evening for the ballgame at McCaskey. The club has several returnees from 2021 on the roster but any time a program has a new coach there is always the feeling of "starting over". At 7:00 game time it was 47 degrees with the winds blowing out to leftfield at 25 miles per hour. Cedar Crest was the opponent, they scored four times in the first inning and carried an 8-0 lead into the sixth. The Red Tornado got on the board in the bottom of the sixth when Braulio Rivera doubled and scored on Cole Hatfield's single, in the seventh Alex Ruiz and Orion Frailey reached on base hits, Rivera's RBI single scored Ruiz with run #2 and Frailey touched home on Hatfield's second RBI hit of the night. The final score was 8-3, Tobe Kuntz started on the mound and took the loss with Elias Morales working in relief. The ballclub had played one previous home game I missed because of hockey in Reading (first time for that since 2017), the next home game is on April 6 and I'm out of that one as well. When I came out of the PA booth after the game the wind hit me right in the face all the way on the walk to my car, it was C-O-L-D. On Saturday Jenny, her mother and I had our usual lunch date, in late afternoon we headed northeast to Allentown for the first time in better than three years for an AHL Phantoms hockey game. The Phantoms started play in the Lehigh Valley in 2014, we try to get there once a season. In previous years we've seen the Manchester Monarchs, Portland Pirates, Springfield Thunderbirds, Toronto Marlies and (most recently in November of 2018) Binghamton Devils as opponents, Springfield and Toronto are the only two from that group still in the AHL. We had tickets for a game the following season which never happened because of The BS, in '20-21 the Phantoms played a shortened schedule with all kinds of restrictions in place and I simply elected not to bother. The Phantoms roster features eight players with Royals connections, six of them were in uniform: Matthew Strome, Max Willman, Charlie Gerard (a Royal briefly earlier in the season) and Ryan MacKinnon plus goalies Felix Sandstrom and Pat Nagle (Kirill Ustimenko and Garrett McFadden were not in the lineup). In the game itself the Phantoms rallied from a 2-0 deficit for a 3-2 win over the Utica Comets (New Jersey Devils affiliate), ex-NHLer Garrett Wilson scored twice including the game-winner with Ryan MacKinnon adding a single marker for winning goalie Felix Sandstrom. By the time I got home it was 12:30am which was OK because there was absolutely nothing going on Sunday. Take care, thanks for reading.