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.
