The new week was largely quiet until Friday evening when the Stormers returned from a brief road trip, the Long Island Ducks were the opponent. The game was scoreless until the bottom of the fourth when Joe Stewart's two-run double gave the Stormers the lead, an RBI double by Isan Diaz in the fifth extended the advantage to 3-0. The visiting Ducks broke the shutout bid with a run in the seventh, in the bottom half the Stormers put together an inning for the ages. The first ten batters all reached base and nine of them scored, when the smoke cleared the club had put ten runs on the board. Jack Conley and Trace Loehr started it with back-to-back singles, Damon Dues reached on a throwing error allowing both runners to score. Gaige Howard drew a walk in front of Diaz's second RBI double of the night, after Niko Hulsizer walked to load the bases Mason Martin launched a moonshot grand slam deep to right field that may still be going. Joseph Carpenter followed with a solo shot to dead center, Stewart batted for the second time and kept the line moving with another single. After Conley and Loehr were retired (for the first two outs) Dues and Howard recorded back-to-back RBI doubles to make the score 13-1. The clubs traded runs in the eighth with the Stormers' coming on Martin's second home run of the night, the final was 14-2 with starting pitcher Noah Bremer working in the seventh inning for the victory. On Saturday Jenny and her mother came into town for their second game of the season, at the ballpark the Royals had a ticket and information table set up which gave us the opportunity to catch up with some hockey friends from Berks County. The game itself was another roller-coaster ride, after Long Island took a 2-0 lead in the first the Stormers tied it in the second on Chad Sedio's two-run home run to left-center. The Ducks retook the lead with two in the third, in the bottom half a run-scoring double by Joe Stewart and an RBI triple by Sedio knotted the game 4-4. Mason Martin went yard to right in the fourth to put the Stormers up 5-4 but single runs in the sixth and seventh plus two more in the ninth gave LI an 8-5 lead. Isan Diaz's solo home run in the ninth brought the final to 8-6, A.J. Alexy took the loss in relief of Oscar De La Cruz. The Stormers took the rubber game in my absence on Sunday, the ballclub next plays at home on September 3. Take care, thanks for reading.
