July 28-30

The month of July has been historically warm, there was an article in the paper recently claiming it could go down as the hottest July on record around here. Earlier in the week the blast furnace opened up in earnest, daytime temperatures have averaged in the 90s. On Friday the Barnstormers returned home for a weekend series with the Staten Island FerryHawks and the events played out much like Thursday. There were dark clouds forming to the west, at 6:30 it was announced that the game would start at 6:45. As 6:45 arrived the tarp was being rolled out and the rain arrived, at 7:10 the game was postponed and reset for Saturday as a doubleheader (shades of that weekend in June with Long Island). The doubledip on Saturday started at 5:30 and proceeded almost without incident, during the first game there was a quick rain squall that delayed the game for about three minutes (the grounds crew actually had the tarp rolled out into fair territory, when the rain disappeared as quickly as it had arrived it was put away in mid-roll). The Stormers scored first in the opener on a second-inning home run by Wilson Garcia, a second run was added in the third on one of the strangest plays you may ever see. Yeison Coca hit a chopper back to the mound, the throw sailed high at first base and rattled around in the Stormers bullpen. By the time the ball was recovered the speedy Coca was headed home, he narrowly beat the tag at the plate to give the Stormers a 2-0 lead. In the sixth three more runs scored, one on a wild pitch and two on bases-loaded walks to Coca and Melvin Mercedes. Starting pitcher Nile Ball surrendered a run in the seventh but as otherwise in complete control of the 5-1 victory. It only took two hours to play the opener, game #2 started in good order at 8:05. Each team scored in the first inning, the Stormers' run coming on a Garcia RBI hit. The visiting Hawks took a 2-1 lead in the fourth but the Stormers equaled it on a fifth-inning RBI double by Andretty Cordero. In the eighth (the first extra inning of a doubleheader game) SI scored twice to go up 4-2, the Stormers got one back on an Ariel Sandoval RBI double but could not find the equalizer. Zach Warren took the 4-3 loss in relief of starter Jaret Lakind. Sunday marked another birthday on the calendar, Jenny's friend Courtney's oldest daughter turned nine. The party was outdoors at a county park just south of town, we were there for about two hours in the late afternoon. Take care, thanks for reading.

July 26-27

Wednesday night at the ballpark but not for a professional game, this night featured the County Midget League playoff semifinals. The city school district did not field a team in 2023, back during high school season the coaches told me they didn't have enough player commitment to make it go. Since the Lancaster Jr. Tornado was dormant this time around I didn't follow the league very closely but I was aware of when the tournament was happening. The top eight regular-season finishers qualified, in the quarterfinals on Monday and Tuesday the top four were all eliminated. On Wednesday Hempfield defeated Lititz in the opener, Ephrata took the nightcap over Cedar Crest. Softball playoffs were scheduled to continue on Thursday night at Garrett Park but Mother Nature decided to play rough. Around 5:00 or so a strong storm passed through the area, it didn't last long but just long enough to ruin the night in Willow Street and have the games moved to Monday the 31st. At the ballpark the championship game was still on for 7:00, I arrived right around game time and learned the start was delayed. The field had been completely tarped but the track areas behind the plate and outside the dugouts were very wet. With it all the game didn't start until shortly after 8:00, Hempfield claimed the title with a 9-1 win over Ephrata. Take care, thanks for reading.

July 21-25

A very quiet weekend with only Saturday lunch with Jenny on the docket. The Southern End Softball League regular season is over, the postseason playoff tournament began on Monday evening at Garrett Park. The top five finishers were seeded into a double-elimination bracket, on Monday the only game was the 5 vs 4 matchup at 7:00. Riverside won over LCM 12-0 in three innings via the mercy rule, that result consigned LCM to the lower bracket and placed Riverside into the winners bracket semifinals on Tuesday. The Tuesday opener at 7:00 was the 3 vs 2 pairing featuring Memorial and Kelly's and it was a thriller just about all the way. Kelly's erased a 2-1 deficit with a five-run fourth inning, Memorial scored once in the sixth and twice in the seventh to force extra innings. In the bottom of the eighth Kelly's had the bases loaded with nobody out but Memorial managed to escape, the game finally ended when Kelly's pushed home the winner in the bottom of the tenth. The second game was scheduled for 8:30 but didn't start until almost 9:15, #1 seed Peach Bottom beat Riverside 9-0 in five innings via the mercy rule. The tournament continues on Thursday the 27th, the winners bracket final with Kelly's vs Peach Bottom is scheduled at 7:00 followed by LCM and Memorial in a lower bracket quarterfinal with the loser eliminated. Take care, thanks for reading. 

July 19-20

Wednesday lunch in Quarryville, Jenny was feeling better but still not 100%. At the ballpark in the evening for game #2 with Lexington, the Barnstormers exploded for twelve runs in the first three innings and won handily 16-7. The Stormers batted through the lineup six times, leadoff hitter Melvin Mercedes had seven plate appearances. Joesph Carpenter had a huge night reaching base all six times up with a home run, two doubles, three runs scored and five runs batted in, he also walked twice and was hit by the pitch. Wilson Garcia was on base five times on two singles, a double, a walk and an error, he scored three runs and had two RBI. Anthony Peroni had a single, a double, a run scored and two RBI, Trayvon Robinson had two hits, scored a run and batted in two. Trace Loehr singled three times and picked up an RBI, Mercedes had two hits and scored twice from the leadoff spot. Yeison Coca and Andretty Cordero had a single, two runs scored and an RBI each, Shawan Dunston and Chad Sedio each had a base hit and a run scored. Nile Ball started and went seven for the win, Tyler Laporte and Garrett Granitz finished it with an inning each. On Thursday night the Stormers completed the three-game sweep with a more conventional 8-6 win. The early innings were once again productive, in the first Coca walked and Cordero singled ahead of Ariel Sandoval's RBI hit scoring Coca and a sac fly by Carpenter plating Cordero. In the second a double by Dunston and a Mercedes sac fly made it 3-0 Stormers but the visitors struck back with three in the third to tie it 3-up. In the home fourth Dunston singled and Loehr drew a walk, Mercedes followed with a two-run double into the gap putting the Stormers ahead 5-3. In the fifth a two-out rally added two more runs, Carpenter singled and Jack Conley walked ahead of Dunston's two-run triple. In the seventh Conley singled, stole second and scored on Dunston's RBI hit making it an 8-3 ballgame, Lexington scored one in the eighth and two in the ninth but it mattered little to the end result. New addition Jeff Bain made his first start for the Stormers and went five innings for the win, Brandyn Sittinger, Zach Warren, Nick Duron and Mike Adams got an inning of work each. The Stormers hit the road for a week, they're back home on the 28th. Take care, thanks for reading. 

July 17-18

The new week started with some distressing news, right before midnight on Sunday night Jenny's mother called. Helen said Jenny was on her way to the ER in an ambulance, she has been having discomfort in her legs recently and apparently the pain became unbearable. Helen was upset because the ambulance crew wouldn't allow her to go along and she had no other way into town, I told her to try to relax and stay close to the phone. I will admit to not sleeping very well myself overnight, when I awoke on Monday morning and there were no messages I called Helen to see if she knew anything. She said Jenny was home and asleep, the hospital ran some tests and x-rays, prescribed some medications and sent her home in a taxicab at 5:00 that morning. They said it was some sort of muscle spasm but it was still worth checking out, you never know when it could have been something much worse. Monday night softball in Willow Street, LCM played a doubleheader losing the opener to Peach Bottom and winnng the late game over Memorial. On Tuesday the Barnstormers opened a new series, the Lexington Counter Clocks were making the last of their three regular-season visits. Both teams had unimpressive first-half records, thus far in the new half the Stormers have been doing well while the Clocks are still running in reverse. On this night the Stormers posted five runs in the first inning, a walk and two singles loaded the bases with nobody out. Ariel Sandoval waked to force home Melvin Mercedes with the first run, after one out Joseph Carpenter doubled to score Yeison Coca and Andretty Cordero. Jack Conley drew a two-out walk putting two men on base, he and Carpenter came home on Trace Loehr's two-run single to make it 5-0. The Clocks struck for single runs in the fourth and fifth, in the home fifth newcomer Chad Sedio doubled and scored on a Wilson Garcia sac fly making it 6-2. A Lexington run in the eighth was offset by a three-run Stormer eighth, all three scoring as a result of Lexington fielding errors. 9-3 was the final score, Jaret Lakind started and went five innings for the win with Bret Clarke, Brian Marconi and newcomer Nick Duron in relief. Take care, thanks for reading.

July 15-16

Saturday night on North Prince Street for game #2 with Spire City aka Frederick. Hagerstown, Maryland is slated to join the ALPB in 2024, there are those who claim that the club in Frederick is a placeholder and will be moving to Hagerstown while others are saying that Frederick is in permanently with Hagerstown joining to form a geographic rivalry. The two cities are less than thirty miles apart (much like Lancaster and York), it would be a great situation for both and on a personal level I'd like to see it happen. On this night at the ballpark the Stormers and the visiting Ghost Hounds traded single runs through five innings, the Stormers run coming in the third on Anthony Peroni's double and Melvin Mercedes' RBI single. In the sixth the Hounds put four on the board to go up 5-1, in the bottom half the Home Boys got three of them right back. Trace Loehr started the rally with a base hit, after one out Ariel Sandoval followed with a double scoring Loehr to make it 5-2. Consecutive singles by Wilson Garcia, Joseph Carpenter (RBI scoring Sandoval) and Trayvon Robinson (RBI scoring Garcia) brought the Stormers within one at 5-4. In the seventh Mercedes drew a one-out walk and scored the tying run on Andretty Cordero's double, Sandoval followed that with an RBI hit plating Cordero putting the Stormers up 6-5. An insurance run was added in the eighth on a Carpenter double and a Peroni RBI hit, the final score was 7-5. Brandyn Sittinger won it in relief of starter Dominic DiSabatino, Andrew Lee worked out of a ninth-inning jam and picked up the save. The series finished with a Stormer win in the afternoon heat on Sunday but I was fashionably absent, with street hockey done in Rothsville until September I spent the days in the comfort of the AC at home. Take care, thanks for reading.

July 14

Things that make you wonder: the Barnstormers played three midweek games at Long Island and won all three, this coming exactly one week after they were torpedoed in three games at home by the same opponent (YOU figure it out). On Friday the Spire City Ghost Hounds were back in town, the first order of business was the completion of that suspended game from July 9. The visitors from Frederick, MD held a 3-0 lead in the fourth inning when the rains came, on this day play resumed from that point at 3:15. The Hounds added onto that lead and were never caught, the final score was 8-4. The Stormers scored in the fifth on a Jack Conley sacrifice fly, an Ariel Sandoval RBI hit in the sixth and Wilson Garcia's two-run home run in the eighth. Bret Clarke had started the game on Sunday and continued on this day since he was on regular rest, he pitched eight innings the hard way and suffered the loss. The game wound down at 5:00, it was announced that the scheduled game would be a seven-inning game beginning at its advertised time of 6:30. Most of those in attendance elected to stay in the ballpark, I had a rare supper there since it happened to be that time of day. In the regular game Spire City once again took an early 3-0 lead, the Barnstormers got two of them back in the third on Andretty Cordero's two-run double. A solo home run by Garcia tied the game in the fourth but the Hounds went back up by one in the fifth and made it stand up for a 4-3 win. Spencer Johnston started and went six innings, Mike Adams finished it with a scoreless seventh. The game only took an hour and forty-five minutes, by 8:15 the night was over and the sun was still up. Take care, thanks for reading.

July 10-13

The Atlantic League's "First Half" ended over the weekend, Long Island and High Point qualified for the postseason as the respective division champions (thanks to this goofy schedule we don't see High Point in Lancaster at all but that story is already well-known). The Barnstormers finished 25-38, over in York the Revolution went 37-26. The early part of the new week was quiet save for three nights in Willow Street and a Wednesday afternoon trip to Berks County. On Monday at Garrett Park LCM split a doubleheader, winning over Riverside and losing to Memorial. Tuesday night featured Kelly's in a doubleheader, they defeated the Marlins in the opener and took the nightcap over Peach Bottom. On Wednesday it was hockey season in Reading (for one night, anyway), the Royals hosted an open house at the Arena. The purpose was to promote ticket sales and introduce some new perks for season-ticket holders, there was also a clearance sale at the team store. I dropped in for about ninety minutes or so just to let everyone know I was still alive and also because it simply felt good to be "back home". The opener at the Arena is October 28, the thirty-six games on the home schedule feature familiar division opponents Worcester, Newfoundland, Adirondack, Norfolk, Trois-Riveries and Maine plus non-divisional games with the Wheeling Nailers, Kalamazoo Wings and Orlando Solar Bears. Thursday was an off-day for the SEL but there was still activity at Garrett Park, the over-60 league played its regularly-scheduled game on the lower field and a makeup on the upper field since it was available. Take care, thanks for reading.

July 8-9

Back at the ballpark on Saturday night, after four straight losses on the homestand (including that blitzkrieg at the hands of Long Island) the Barnstormers finally broke out offensively with a 17-4 win over Spire City. The ballclub unleashed a 23-hit attack and scored in each of its first seven at-bats including six home runs from six different players. Everyone in the starting nine got into the act, Melvin Mercedes led the way with four hits, a home run, four runs scored and three RBI. Yeison Coca was 4-6 with a round-tripper, three runs and three ribbies, Shawon Dunston went yard as one of his two hits, he scored twice and knocked in two runs. Jack Conley went 2-4 with a longball, two runs and two RBI, Ariel Sandoval had two hits including a solo shot and an RBI single, Trayvon Robinson rounded out the home run derby with a solo homer and two runs scored. Andretty Cordero went 5-6 with two RBI, Wilson Garcia had two hits, a run scored and two ribbies, Trace Loehr rounded out the book with a base hit and two runs scored. On the mound Nile Ball went five on another hot night for the decision, Brandyn Sittinger and Garrett Granitz worked two innings each in relief. On Sunday morning we were in Rothsville for the spring hockey season's championship games, Ephrata beat Warwick for the "bronze medal" and Township downed Hillside for the league title. This was the second straight championship for Township, in five seasons at Lions Park it marks the first time any team has won it twice. Fifty-three players participated in the twenty games played, the fall season should start the Sunday after Labor Day. There were rainstorms in the forecast, we had a brief shower during the second game but it was nothing that stopped us. Later in the afternoon a massive storm passed through and disrupted proceedings at the ballpark, the game was suspended until Friday the 14th when the Spire City Ghost Hounds return. Take care, thanks for reading. 

July 7

The Atlantic League started with six clubs in 1998 and expanded to eight in 2000, when Staten Island joined in 2022 it created a need for a tenth team to balance the schedule. The organization in Lexington stepped up and hosted two teams in '22 but the experiment was not particularly successful. The affiliated minor leagues were massively reorganized in 2021, several long-standing MiLB cities lost their franchises with the Orioles' affiliate in Frederick, Maryland among the casualties. Frederick immediately received a team in the new MiLB Draft League, in 2023 that team is sharing its stadium with the newest ALPB entry (I guess we could call it Lexington: Version 2). The new club is known as the "Spire City Ghost Hounds" (and I'm not even going to try to explain it), on this Friday evening they were appearing in Lancaster for the very first time. After the drubbing the Barnstormers took from Long Island this game was much more competitive but the end result was ultimately the same. The visiting Ghost Hounds went up 1-0 in the second, in the home third the Stormers tied it on back-to-back doubles from Jack Conley and Anthony Peroni (back with the Stormers from a brief stint elsewhere), Trace Loehr's RBI hit scored Peroni to give the Stormers a 2-1 lead. Spire City (perhaps that should be in quotation marks?) tied it 2-2 in the fifth and that score held through the remainder of regulation play. In the tenth inning the game fell apart for the Barnstormers, a four-spot gave the Hounds a 6-2 lead. The Stormers got one back in the bottom half on an RBI single by Loehr, the final was 6-3. Jaret Lakind started and went the first six, Garrett Granitz worked the fateful tenth and took the decision. The series continues on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon (weather permitting, the ever-present threat of showers is in the forecast). Take care, thanks for reading.

July 5-6

Wednesday evening at the ballpark for game #2 with Lomg Island, on this night the contest started differently but the result was largely the same as Tuesday. The Barnstormers jumped out to an early lead in the first inning on back-to-back doubles by Melvin Mercedes and Andretty Cordero, RBI hits from Ariel Sandoval and Joseph Carpenter put the home team ahead 3-0. It took the visitors all of a half-inning to tie the score, three more in the fourth gave the Ducks a 6-3 cushion. The Stormers got one back in the fourth on another RBI hit by Sandoval but from there it was all Long Island, six unanswered runs over the last six innings brought the final score to 12-4. Spencer Johnston went six innings and took the loss with support from Garrett Granitz, Brian Marconi and Andrew Lee for an inning each. The series wrapped up on Thursday night and for the Stormers the result was depressingly familiar. The vistors from Central Islip scored three in the first and two more in the third, a five-run fourth blew it wide open at 10-0. The Stormers got on the board in the fourth on Jake Hoover's RBI single but five more runs in the later innings salted away a one-sided 15-1 Long Island win. Brent Teller started and didn't survive the fourth inning, he was followed by Marconi for a three-inning stint, single frames by Bret Clarke, Tyler Laporte and Jake Hoover mopping it up in the ninth. Long Island is one of the league's most veteran teams, better than half their roster has MLB time on their resume and that experience came to the forefront in this series (by contrast only two current Stormers have been in The Big Show). For the series the Stormers were outscored 41-8 and all you can do is file it in the trash can and move on to the next series. The ballclub stays at home for a weekend set against the Atlantic League's newest franchise. Take care, thanks for reading. 

July 1-4

The second half of 2023 began on a typical Saturday with Jenny for lunch, there was little else on the schedule until Tuesday when the nation celebrated its birthday. At the ballpark on North Prince Street the Barnstormers returned home for the start of a six-day homestand, the Long Island Ducks were the opponent. The Ducks are the most frequent visitor on the Stormers' home schedule, they play fifteen games in Lancaster spread out over five series. The game started at 6:00, one half-hour earlier than usual because a huge postgame holiday fireworks spectacular was scheduled and since it was a weeknight they didn't want to risk disturbing the neighborhood in the very late evening hours. Just about all of the in-game pyrotechnics belonged to Long Island, the Ducks led 3-0 after a half-inning and went never seriously challenged. The Stormers scored single runs in the first on an Ariel Sandoval RBI single and in the third on a Melvin Mercedes home run, the Ducks replied with a run in the fourth to go up 4-2. From there the visitors tallied ten runs unanswered, the Stormers got a run in the ninth on Trace Loehr's RBI hit but it was nowhere near enough as the Ducks won it going away 14-3. Brandyn Sittinger worked into the fifth inning on a ninety-degree night and took the loss, Bret Clarke and Mike Adams pitched in relief. The game ended around 8:50 or so, as the crowd of better than 6400 hung around for the fireworks I headed for my car to crank up the AC and go home. I worked in the industry for thirty-five years, over that time I hyped up more fireworks shows than I care to remember with each one being the "Most Outstanding, Tremendous, Super-Sensational Spectacular" in the history of most outstanding, tremendous, super-sensational spectaculars. I always took advantage of the opportunity to beat the traffic because fireworks shows are like hockey pucks: if you've seen one you've seen them all. I've always said that there is only one way to watch fireworks and that is In The Rearview Mirror. Take care, thanks for reading.