Woke up Monday morning exceptionally sore from the weekend, almost twenty-one hours of sitting on wooden bleachers over two days will do that to you. At the ballpark in the evening for the championship game of the County Midget League tournament. The JrT finished 7-9 (with one game canceled) and qualified as the #6 seed, they were eliminated in the quarterfinals in the afternoon heat on Saturday. The semifinals were on Sunday afternoon with Lititz and Penn Manor advancing to the championship game, in the title game on Monday Lititz rallied back from down 0-2 in the sixth to win 3-2. On Tuesday the Barnstormers were back in town for the opener of a three-game set with the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs. Over the weekend the Stormers added five new players to the roster including one who made a huge impression on this night in his first game with the club. The visiting Crabs took a 4-0 lead into the bottom of the third, Trace Loehr singled and scored on a sac fly by Andretty Cordero putting the Stormers on the board at 4-1. A four-run Crab fifth expanded the Stormers' deficit to 8-1, a solo home run by Melvin Mercedes in the bottom half made it 8-2. In the sixth base hits by newcomers Jacob Barfield and Ariel Sandoval set the table for consecutive RBI markers by Anthony Peroni and Loehr pulling the Stormers to within 8-4. In the seventh Trayvon Robinson singled and came home on Barfield's two-run home run onto the picnic deck making it 8-6. In the eighth Shawon Dunston reached on a bunt single with two out, Mercedes followed with his second round-tripper of the night tying the game 8-8. It all crashed in the ninth when Maryland scored to go up 9-8. in the bottom half the Stormers were retired in order but not before Barfield hit a drive that was caught at the base of the wall in dead-centerfield (Jacob is the nephew of former MLB power hitter Jesse Barfield, he was added from the Pioneer League where he had twenty-one home runs so there is definitely some pop in his bat). Nile Ball started and went five innings, newcomer Gray Fenter pitched two scoreless in relief with Dominic DeSabatino (back from a stint on the DL) working the last two and taking the late loss. The series continues on Wednesday and Thursday. Take care, thanks for reading.
