Back at the ballpark on Wednesday night for game #2 with Hagerstown, on this night the visitors from western Maryland took a 3-0 lead in the second. The Stormers returned fire with a four-run third thanks to a Gaige Howard RBI hit, Trace Loehr's run-scoring double and an Isan Diaz two-run home run. The clubs traded runs in the fourth, the Stormers' coming on a Niko Hulsizer triple and Joe Stewart's sac fly. The one-run Stormer lead lasted until the seventh when the Boxcars tied it up, in the bottom half the Home Team took the lead back for good. Diaz singled with the bases loaded to make it 6-5, two batters later Stewart deposited a grand slam onto the picnic tents in right putting the Stormers ahead 10-5. From there the bullpen shut it down, Scott Engler was the winner in relief of Oscar De La Cruz. On Thursday Jenny's mother was in town for an appointment unrelated to her episode earlier in the week, I took her home and we picked up lunch along the way. She would have otherwise waited well into the afternoon for the access van to return and Jenny would have been at home worrying the entire time, Helen is OK from her late Monday/early Tuesday fall but she definitely looks like she went fifteen rounds with the champ. In the evening at the ballpark the Stormers entered with a magic number of one to clinch the second-half division title, the mission was accomplished but not necessarily the way they might have liked. After the offensive pyrotechnics over the last two nights the bats were largely quiet, Jack Conley's two-run double in the fourth were the only scores for the Stormers in a 3-2 Hagerstown win. Max Green started and went the first five, Michael McAvene took the loss in relief. The game ended at 9:22, two minutes later on Long Island the Ducks lost to High Point 4-1 clinching the second-half title for the Stormers. A Stormers-York Revolution showdown for the overall division looms on the horizon with the first two games in the best-of-three series at the ballpark beginning on Tuesday the 17th. Take care, thanks for reading.
