The new month began on a chilly, rainy and windswept Monday, in the afternoon we were at McCaskey. The Red Tornado hosted Penn Manor for the second time and were torpedoed 18-3. JPM scored single runs in the first, third and sixth innings: in the first Eli Morales singled and scored on Adrian Rodriguez's RBI double, the exact same combination accounted for the run in the third. The last run came in the sixth, Jhanel Perez walked and scored on an RBI single by Kelvin Torres. PM scored three in the second, four in the third, three more in the fifth and put it away with a eight-run sixth, the game ended after six via the mercy rule. Janpaul Rodriguez started on the hill with Jhanel Perez, Tobe Kuntz and Nikolai Bergeron in relief. As the game ended it was raining lightly and the sun was out, a brilliant rainbow developed over right field. Tuesday was Opening Night at the ballpark on North Prince Street, the Barnstormers began their nineteenth season in the Atlantic League. Veteran manager Ross Peeples is back along of a majority of the players who won the 2022 league championship, the longtime rival York Revolution were the opponent. The Revs are entering their seventeenth season virtually starting over with a new manager, coaching staff and just a handful of returnees. Rick Forney (longtime manager at Winnipeg in the American Association) takes over for the retired Mark Mason as manager with infielder Nellie Rodriguez, outfielder Troy Stokes and pitcher Jorge Martinez as the only holdovers from the 2022 club. The weather was much like Monday except there was little if any sunlight, there were periods of light rain throughout the night. The Stormers went up 2-0 in the first on Kelly Dugan's two-run home run, the Revolution cut the lead in half in the fourth on Stokes' RBI double. In the sixth the Stormers put four on the board, one scoring on Chris Proctor's RBI double, two more on a Jake Hoover triple and the last on Shawon Dunston's RBI single. The teams traded runs in the seventh, the Revs on Alexis Pantoja's infield groundout and the Stormers on Dugan's second home run of the night. Andrew Lee was the winning pitcher in relief of starter Jacob Lemoine, Rev starter J.T. Hintzen took the loss. A crowd of better than 5000 was in the house on a comparatively miserable night, the series continues Wednesday and Thursday. Take care, thanks for reading.
