There are two fields at Garrett Park in Willow Street, the "upper field" which has lights and a scoreboard is used by the Southern End League and the lower (no lights or scoreboard) is used by an over-60 league. On Thursday the 1st there was no action in the SEL but the over-60 league had a single game at 6:15. The league uses several modified rules due the ages of its players and it was entertaining in its own right, at my own age I can appreciate the fact that those guys are still playing a sport they obviously enjoy. On Friday the Barnstormers returned home after eleven days away, the Long Island Ducks were the opponent. The Atlantic League started in 1998 with six teams, Long Island joined via expansion in 2000 and they are currently the league's senior franchise (all of the original six are long gone). In 2022 the Barnstormers played a weekend series in July as the fictional "Lebanon Ironmasters", that promotion was repeated on this weekend complete with special uniforms. Melvin Mercedes and Yeison Coca started the Friday game with consecutive base hits, Andretty Cordero's infield groundout scored Mercedes and Coca touched home on Kelly Dugan's RBI single putting the Stormers up 2-0. The visitors from Central Islip, NY countered with three in the second, in the bottom half Joseph Carpenter (the Lebanon native) walked and Jack Conley singled him to third, an errant pickoff throw to first allowed Carpenter to score the tying run. In the third Trayvon Robinson doubled with two out, Chris Proctor singled Trayvon home and Carpenter followed with a two-run home run onto the berm in left field making it 6-3. Cordero started the fifth inning with a solo home run putting the Stormers ahead by four, in the sixth Long Island pulled to within 7-6 but could come no further. Brent Teller went the first six on the mound and picked up the win with Brandyn Sittinger, Mike Adams and Andrew Lee (save) each working a scoreless frame in relief. On Saturday in game #2 the Stormers again went up 2-0 on Carpenter's second-inning two-run homer, his second in as many games on Lebanon Weekend. Two runs for Long Island in the fifth evened the score, a single run in the sixth put the Ducks ahead 3-2. In the Stormer sixth Cordero doubled and Dugan reached on an error, Andretty scored on a wild pitch to tie it and a sacrifice fly by Proctor plated Kelly to put the Stormers back up 4-3. The pesky Ducks tied it in the seventh but in the bottom of the eighth Dugan fired a one-out missile over the picnic tents in right field giving the Stormers a 5-4 lead. Lee worked a perfect ninth for the save, Mike Adams was the winner in relief of starter Jared Lakind. The Stormers completed the series sweep on Sunday, I spent the morning in Rothsville at Lions Park. After a week off for the holiday we were back for week #6, Township beat Ephrata and Warwick won over Hillside. Take care, thanks for reading.
