It was an ordinary day. Made a trip with my wife Carol and friends Pat and Dale to see the Lancaster Stormer's baseball team play a game at Clipper Magazine Stadium a few miles from my home at Woodcrest Villas. The mid-week game was played between the Stormers and the Staten Island Ferryhawks who both play in the Atlantic League. My Grandson Caden works for the Stormers during the summer as a part-time job to help him pay for his tuition at college. The Barnstormers had a special offer and Caden was able to get me four tickets for the game. The stands in the stadium were almost half-filled when the game began at 6:30 PM. Beautiful summer evening with temperatures in the high-70s when the game began. Clipper Magazine Stadium is a fair-sized stadium with seating from the left-field foul pole to the right-field foul pole. The Stormers have been playing average ball this summer and faced a three-run deficit entering the bottom of the ninth tonight. Three more outs would've dropped them below .500 for the season. Well, the crowd got behind them and they began a rally. Six straight batters reached base. A single, a triple, a walk, another single, an error and a fielder's choice allowed the Stormers to walk off the field with a 7-6 win over the Staten Island Ferry Hawks. The bottom of the ninth was thrilling after being behind during the rest of the game. "You get one on, you get two on, then you can start to feel it," Storers manager Ross Peeples said. "You got to have some things go your way!" All seven of the Stormer's runs came after the fourth inning. Their offense, which struggled to produce with runners in scoring position early in the game --- blowing chances in the second and fourth innings --- came though after falling into a five-run hole. The most explosive hit in the bottom of the ninth inning was an RBI triple off the right-field wall by Jack Conley. The game-tying run came on an error on a bunt by Trace Loehr as losing pitcher J.P. Woodward's throw home from the side of the mound sailed wide. Sharon Dunston Jr. beat the throw to the plate on an infield chopper by Joseph Carpenter for the walk-off fielder's choice in the next at-bat. Lancaster's scoring began in the fifth on a solo home run by Damon Dues, his second in his 10 games with the Stormers this season. Even though the offense won the game, their bull-pen paved the way with Nile Ball, Stefan Moore and Jackson Rees combined to allow only one run in five innings. Wednesday's victory for Lancaster brought their record to 28 wins and 27 losses. The victory secured a series win, its second straight this season against Staten Island. The victory also created the Stormer's first winning streak in two weeks. I enjoyed walking around the stadium, managing to get out to center field, to take some photos of the stadium and the game. Check them out... It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
No comments:
Post a Comment