September 16-17

Back at the ballpark on Friday for the final series of the regular season, the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs were in for a pre-playoffs three-game set. It's always curious when upcoming playoff opponents meet especially when the games are essentially meaningless, the only real attraction is to see how the teams choose to utilize the time in preparation for what really matters later. On Friday the Barnstormers drew first blood with a 5-2 win. A three-run sixth erased a 1-0 deficit, the runs scoring on RBI hits by Jake Hoover and Melvin Mercedes plus an Andretty Cordero sac fly. In the eighth Cordero added a solo home run and a Jacob Barfield RBI single scored the last run, Brooks Hall pitched five innings of one-hit ball for the win. On Saturday the teams were scheduled to make up the July 28 rainout as part of a doubleheader, when the Stormers clinched the second-half pennant and made the playoff matchup official that rainout game was canceled since it wasn't needed. The advertised single game went on as scheduled, on this night it was all Stormers from the proverbial word Go. A five-run first inning started with a Shawon Dunston solo home run, Anderson Feliz's two-run double and a Barfield RBI hit made it 4-0 before Dunston drew a bases-loaded walk for the fifth run. From there the club added four more on solo home runs by Dunston in the fourth, Trayvon Robinson in the fifth, Andretty Cordero in the seventh and Joseph Carpenter (his first as a pro) in the eighth. Cameron Gann went five innings allowing just two base hits and picked the 9-0 win. The series ends on Sunday afternoon, one final tune-up before The Real Series starts on Tuesday.  Take care, thanks for reading.