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.
