THE END arrived for the Royals in St. John's on Saturday night, the club had forced a fifth game with a win in Game Four but the tank finally ran empty. It's always sad to see a season reach its conclusion (especially where the job is legitimately fun and enjoyable) but it was another successful year on the ice with the club qualifying for the postseason for the sixteenth time in the franchise's twenty-one seasons. It's a cliche but it's still true: October will be here before we know it. On Friday night we were West Of The River for the first time in 2023, in York the Revolution was hosting the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs. We've often talked about how unusual the ECHL schedule can be, the Atlantic League seems to be taking notes. The Crabs and the High Point Rockers are not scheduled to appear in Lancaster AT ALL in 2023, in York the Revs will not host the Gastonia Honey Hunters. The league credited a group from a major university for developing this schedule but perhaps an elementary school arithmetic course may have come in handy. On this night in York the Revs took a 1-0 lead in the first, Trent Giambrone walked and scored on a Nellie Rodriguez sac fly. Southern Maryland went up 2-1 in the third, in the home fifth Ryan January singled with two out and trotted home on Giambrone's two-run home run. The Crabs tied the game in the sixth, in the seventh the Revs took the lead for good on back-to-back doubles by Trey Martin and Troy Stokes Jr. The bullpen made it stand up in the 4-3 final, Will Carter won it in relief of J.T. Hintzen with Tasker Strobel and Victor Capellan working the last two innings. Lunch with Jenny was about all that happened on Saturday, Sunday was a street hockey day in Rothsville. These games were rematches from April 23, Ephrata beat Hillside and Township won over Warwick. Take care, thanks for reading.
