Monday night softball in Willow Street, LCM beat Riverside and Peach Bottom won over Memorial. On Tuesday the ballpark on North Prince Street was the site for the opener of a three-game series. The Lexington Legends began as an affiliated MiLB club in 2001, the franchise kept that identity when it came to the ALPB in 2021. During the offseason the organization elected to rebrand as the "CounterClocks" (don't ask), they were in town earlier in May but I missed the series entirely due to other commitments. Recent wildfires in Canada have been a major concern as the smoke and haze has filtered south over the Mid-Atlantic, as the night progressed and the lights took effect it was very noticeable. In the first inning Melvin Mercedes walked and Andretty Cordero singled, Kelly Dugan's RBI single and a Trayvon Robinson fielders-choice groundout gave the Barnstormers a 2-0 lead. The Clocks struck for two of their own in the second, the bottom half started with Jack Conley and Jake Hoover drawing back-to-back walks. Yeison Coca reached on an error allowing Conley to score, consecutive sacrifice flies by Mercedes and Cordero put the Stormers ahead 5-2. A run for Lexington in the fifth made it a 5-3 game, Dugan's two-run shot into the picnic deck in the last of the inning gave the Stormers a four-run advantage. Each team scored single runs in the seventh and eighth, the Stormers' coming on a solo shot by Dugan in the seventh and a Mercedes RBI double in the eighth. The final was 9-5, Nile Ball started and went six innings for the win with Cole Aker and Tyler Laporte in relief. On Wednesday there were reports all over about the air quality, big-league games all along the East Coast were being postponed. About forty-five minutes before game time the Barnstormers announced their game was off, I found out when I arrived in the parking lot. There were softball games scheduled at Garrett Park, I drove down to see if anything was happening. The over-60 league (!!!) was at the lower field getting ready for their 6:15 start, around 6:40 the teams scheduled for 7:00 on the upper field began to filter in. This was a one-game night for the SEL, Memorial defeated Riverside. Take care, thanks for reading.
