Lancaster – Penn Points Online

Live Blog of the Barnstormers Tonight

By Sam Valentin-

I am at Clipper Magazine Stadium waiting for the start of the finale against the Somerset Patriots at 7pm. Already the fans are starting to trickle in, the smell of hotdogs, and cotton candy fill the air, while the green grass glimmers in the afternoon sunlight. Its a great night for baseball folks. And I will bring it to you live tonight from the press box.

The Barnstormers lost in shocking fashion last night to the Pat’s in the middle game of the three game series which concludes tonight. The Patriots scored seven… yes seven runs with their final four outs to stun the Stormer’s by a score of 7-6. Although Durbin pitched a no- no through six and two thirds innings.

Lineups-

Somerset

2B Freddie Bynum

LF Deangelo Mack

1B Freddy Sandoval

DH Jesse hoorelbeke

RF Aaron Mathews

3B Jeff Nettles

C Yusuf Carter

CF Johnny Drenned

SS Rex Rundgren

RHP Justin Cassel (0-1)

Barnstormers

CF Adam Godwin

LF Blake Gailen

1B Tommy Everidge

3B Terry Tiffee

RF Ryan Harvey

2B Brad Boyer

DH Fehlandt Lentini

SS Jaime Pedroza

C Emerson Frostad

LHP Rich Rundles (0-0)

7 pm- National Anthem and Stormers take field

Now play ball

Freddie Bynum up. He grounds out to short.

Now Deangelo Mack. He lines out to short.

Two down with Sandoval at the dish. And again the shortstop makes the put out.

Now the Stormers are up in the bottom of the first

Godwin flys out to center and Gailen grounds out. and now slugger Tommy Everidge struts to the plate to take his cuts with two down. He stays cold by grounding out to short

Three up three down for both teams

And now Hoorelbeke up. This guy can hit. He he showed it two nights ago.Well he grounds out to Tiffee. Mathews strikes out. Rundles first of the night. Two down. Nettles ends the inning with a ground out back to Rundles.

Now up Tiffee for the Stormers. He strikes out. Cassel’s first k of the night. And now up harvey. Harvey gets called out looking. Back to back strikeouts for Cassel. Boyer steps in. He grounds out to first to end the inning.

Carter digs in for the pats in the third. He gets the first hit of the game with a grounder up the middle. Drennen, Mr. frosty for the night steps up. Although Drennen gets rung up for the second k of Rundles night but Carter takes second. Rundren singles to left and Carter scores from second 0ff an error in left. Somerset up one. Now Bynum up again. He strikes out and then Rundles gets a line out to short from Mack.

So bottom of the third and its now 1 to nothing not in the Stormers favor.

Lentini up to lead off. He gets on with a very strong liner. Pedroza steps in. He strikesout giving Cassel his third k of the night. Frostad up with one down Lentinit on first. Frosty (yes I just gave him that nickname) hits into a 4-3 double play to end the inning.

Now the fourth inning and Sandoval is leading off. He flies out to shallow center. Hoorelbeke up who puts a frozen rope to left. one on first and one out for Mathews who puts a double into the gap in right, Both men in scoring position for Nettles who barely gets called out at first. Ends the inning no damage.

Now the home side of the fourth.

Godwin leads off. Godwin grounds to first for out number one. Gailen digs in and grounds out to first. Great defense from the Pats this inning. Everidge ends the inning with a strikeout.

Fifth inning now and score the same with the Pat’s up one.

Carter doubles to start the inning. Next up Drennen or Frosty who drops a sac bunt. Rundgren then hits a sac fly scoring carter to make the score two in the favor of the Pats. Stormers still nothing. The top of the line up with Bynum who gets on after a lengthy at bat with a grounder up the first base side. Mack up with two down and Bynum standing on first. Bynum now on second easily takes the base. Lightening just sighted in background folks could effect the game. Mack ends up striking out.

With the stormers down two Tiffe flies out to right. Harvey grounds out and Boyer strikes out to end that frame.

Now the sixth and Sandoval strikes out. And Hoorelbeke gets another base hit with a liner to left. Mathews up next at the plate with Hoorelbeke on first. And Mathews looks out but called safe at first. Rundles is at 83 pitches after he strikes out Nettles.

Lentini leading it off. He gets on by way of an error by the shortstop. This brings up Pedroza who takes a long at bat and ends up with a stirke out which turns into a double play when Lentini is thrown out trying to steal second. Frostad comes up and grounds out to first.

Ching Lung Lo now pitching for Lancaster. Leading off for the Pat’s is Carter who flies out to shallow left. Next up Drennen who also flies out to left. Rundgren grounds out to end this side of the seventh inning to led us to our stretch.

After the stretch the top of the line up leads it off for the Stormer’s. Godwin gets on with a liner to center. This brings up Gailen who moves Godwin to scoring position with a ground out to first. Everidge back up to the plate and he is hitless on the night. He does move Godwin to third and this brings up Tiffee in a much needed RBI situation. And Tiffee comes up short when he smacks the ball to the left fielder.

Now the eighth inning. And fan favorite, Ross Peebles brought in for the stormers. Somerset’s top of the line up leads it off. So Bynum steps in and flies out to left for the first out and Mack walks which brings up Sandoval who gets rung up by Peebles. This leads to a pitching change by Hobson who goes with Pollok who gets Hoorelbeke to fly out to shallow right.

Now the pitcher for Somerset is Anthony Claggett who faces first Harvey who gets rung up. This brings up Boyer who goes deep to right center to finally put a tally on for Lancaster but they are still down one. Lentini up now who beats out a grounder to bring up Pedroza with one out and man on first. Pitching now is David Quinowski. Pedroza is seeing a plethora of pitches before he finally gets called out on strikes when it looked like a walk. Frostad to bat. Lentini finally steals second he has been tip toeing around all night. Frostad takes a stroll to first and the Pat’s bring in another pitcher in Josh Rupe. He gets a chopper down to load the bases for Gailen who has an opportunity here to tie or even take the lead for the Stormers. They have not led all game. And runners advance on a passed ball. Games tied at two with two outs in the bottom of the eighth. And the eighth finaally comes to end with Gailen popping up to short.

Mathews to lead off the ninth for Somerset. He is struck out. This brings up Nettles who flies out to center. There could be extra baseball here tonight. Carter strikes out and this could lead to a walk off for the Stormers. Lets hope so.

Leading off slumping, slugger Tommy Everidge who can not buy a hit right now. He grounds out to short for out number one. Tiffee up with the chance to be the hero. And no he grounds out. Here comes Harvey with the last out in regulation in the midst. Will he be the hero? The devils just took the lead by the way. Well he was no hero but stayed alive and fought for a blooper to center to get on to bring up the man who already homered once tonight, Boyer. Can he do it again? No he can not.

Extra baseball on the way.

Another call to the bullpen for Lancaster. They call upon Mike Johnston to face Drennen. And he knew what was coming and he crushed it to center his first hit of the night and he has two RBI’s on the night as well. The lead is now one by Somerset in the top of the tenth. Will he be the hero? Rundgren flies out to center for the first out and Bynum grounds out. And Mack grounds out to bring up the Barnstormers who really need to find there bats here.

Lentini will lead off the bottom of the 10th. He grounds out to short. One done for Pedroza at the dish now. He cracks one done the first base side that is gobbled up. Frostad with two outs needs to do something here. Down t there last out and Frostad get a single throw a hole between first and second. Brings up Godwin who puts away a fielders choice and somerset wins and takes the series.

The Stormers did eventually lose the series against the Patriots but it was a tough series. In game one the Stormers won easily with a score of seven to two. The game was never really in question. And then in game two even with Lancatser’s pitcher, J.D Durbin pitching almost seven innings of no hit baseball they allowed Somerset to score seven runs in their final four outs. And last night in the finale the Stormers never really got it going losing to the Pat’s in ten innings. Drennen, who also hit the game winning homerun two night ago delivered again when he smacked a lead off homer in the tenth to secure the game and series for the Somerset Patriots.

Now the Barnstormer’s will prepare to battle the new team in the Atlantic League, the Sugar Land Skeeters. They have a three game weekend series with them. And then they have a mini series at home against Camden starting on Mondya before heading to Camden for two nights when next weekend they will end up back here in Lancaster against Southern Maryland.

Revolution Reigns over ‘Stormers

By Sam Valentin-

The five game series and ultimately the Barnstormers season came down to one run in the tenth inning. But the run that decided both teams destinies was not scored by Lancaster.

The Revolution beat the Barnstormers 5-4 in 10 innings and are now penciled in to play the Long Island Ducks in the Atlantic League Championship Series starting Wednesday in New York.

37968651E 2 — The York Revolution celebrate their Freedom Divison Championship. Photo courtesy of York Daily.

The game was close until the top of the tenth inning when the ‘Revs bats found new life, scoring four in the inning after capitalizing off an error.

Heading into Lancaster’s side of the frame, the score was 5-1 and it looked as if the game had already been decided. But Terry Tiffee smashed a two-out, three run home run off York closer R.J Rodriguez to bring them within one run. The Stormers thought they might live to fight again. But Travis Metcalf came up against Revolution reliever Dumas Garcia who struck him out to end the series.

Immediately following the game Lancaster Barnstormers manager Butch Hobson walked into the the visitor’s dugout to shake hands with his good friend and Revolution manager, Andy Etchebarron.

“I said congratulations and that I loved him,” said Hobson to the ‘Revs manager, Etchebarron.

The Barnstormers did not have quite enough steam to pull off the series comeback. After dropping the first two games at York. Lancaster came home with the series in many people’s minds. Fridays game was rained out but the Barnstormers won game three and four which made the series go to the decisive game five Monday night.

Stephen Douglas hit a homer to right to put Lancaster up 1-o but that is all they could muster off ‘Revs starter Corey Thurman who gave up only three hits in 6 2/3 innings. He struck out nine and walked only three in a commanding performance.

“We didn’t do much with Corey,” Hobson said of Thurman, who got the win in the series opener. “It’s amazing. He gets people out with that change-up. He throws (batting practice) fastballs. And he throws a cutter.”

‘Stormers lefty, Steve Hammond’s, performance was just as good only giving up one hit in six shut out innings.

“The biggest mistake I made tonight was not sticking with Hammond,” Hobson said. “But he’d been through the order twice and (reliever Jeff) Bennett’s been a guy they haven’t hit all year.”

Jeff Bennett gave up the tying run off an Eric Eymann RBI single.That was all the scoring until York broke open the game in their half of the tenth.They scored four runs off three relievers in an explosive tenth inning.

The rally really started after former Barnstormer, Bryant Nelson hit a hard chopper to second baseman, Gilberto Mejia. Mejia waited for the ball to come to him but it eluded his glove bouncing into shallow center field.

“It was an in-between hop and I was just hoping it would hit me in the chest,” said Mejia in an interview with Lancaster Newspapers.

Lancaster just could not respond in the bottom of the tenth. So York proceeded to celebrate on Lancaster’s home field. They brought on the champagne and music and were having a very jovial time in the clubhouse.

“The season’s over,” Hobson said after the heartbreaking defeat to the York Revolution. “I’m proud of this team. I’m proud of the city, the support. I love it here. I love the people here. I just wish we could have gotten to the finals for them.”

Barnstomer’s head into Decisive Game Five Tonight

By Sam Valentin-

The Lancaster Barnstormers have evened up the best of five series with a 6-1 victory over the York Revolution Sunday night at Clipper Magazine Stadium.

Tommy Everidge, Lancaster's slugging first baseman. Photo courtesy of lancasterbarnstomers.com.

The possibility of a game five seemed unlikely to players in both clubhouses about four days ago when the Revs’ were in control of the series after two quick wins in York.

For some reason the Barnstormers strong offense went dormant when the playoffs started. But even after going down two games to York, the Barnstormers never lost focus or energy.

“I told them they were destined to win it and I still believe that,” Lancaster manager Butch Hobson said of his team after their game two lost.

And then the ‘Stormers came back east of the Susquehanna, found their bats and went back to their winning ways taking two in a row from the Revolution.

Game three was a masterful pitching performance from pitcher John Halama. He led Lancaster to a 5-1 win with help from Tommy Everidge, Travis Metcalf and Terry Tiffee who all sent balls flying over the outfield fence.

“He was outstanding,” Hobson said in an interview about Halama who threw 112 pitches, surrendering a lone run and only giving up two hits over the course of the entire game. “He’s a big-game pitcher.”

In game four, Matt Wright was on the mound and followed in Halama’s footsteps Sunday night with a great pitching performance in his return from a left knee injury. He allowed one run, giving up only three hits to the Revs’ over six innings pitched.

Tonight the ‘Stormers look to win game five which they knew was theirs from the start.

“After we win three at home, you guys can say Butch knows what he’s talking about,” said Hobson “We’re going to go home and win it in front of our fans. That’s what I wanted to do.”

They hope to do just that tonight at Clipper Magazine Stadium at 6:30pm in front of what they hope is a huge crowd that can witness history.

Inferno Drops Pin on Local Bowling Alley

By Alex Geli –

2 a.m: Columbia Bowl closes down for the night. Pins, balls, shoes, roof all in tact.

5 a.m: Lights appear to be back on. Rather bright, aren’t they?

6 a.m: Pins, balls, shoes, roof no longer in tact.

With a red, yellow and orange tint reflecting in their eyes, multiple witnesses made phone calls to 9-1-1 about the devastating fire that occurred Sunday morning at a Lancaster County bowling alley.

When fire crews arrived, nothing was left to be salvaged. The alley, which illuminated the night sky, was quoted as a “fireball.”

“That was a big chunk of my childhood,” he said. “I bowled there every Saturday morning,” said Alex Mercer, a senior and former employee alongside his mother at Columbia Bowl.

His former place of work was described by West Township fire Chief Barry Carter to be “a complete loss.”

The decision to fix the damages is still up in the air, leaving the people of Columbia with only hopes to see their local hot spot in the future.

An “unknown source,” as Mercer put it, told him that depending how much the insurance company gives the alley, they’re planning to rebuild.

Hinting at who that “unknown source” was, Mercer added, “We were real close to the owners.”

“They’re just totally devastated,” owner Nathan Jameson said. “It’s been two days and just a constant stream of people through here that come up and hug you, shake your hand.”

This instance is all-too-familiar for the family-owned business.

In 1971, the building had its first run-in with fire, with fire being the victor, just like on Sunday.

40 years later, the flowing, scorching hot blue, red and yellow gas returned to bite Columbia Bowl and Pinchaser’s Lounge in the rear-end a second time, and Jameson is left with not only a roofless structure, but a question as to who or what exactly sparked this catastrophe.

According to Mercer, right as the firemen got there, they ruled out the chance that an arsonist started the blaze. Also, they figured out that the fire started out in the center and spread.

The probable cause of the fire is due to recent electrical work.

“New games, new lanes…” he said, noting the new additions to the archaic building.

“Same old monitors though,” Mercer said sarcastically.

Currently, Mercer describes himself as “happily unemployed.” Not only has he not worked there for around a year, following his mother’s footsteps, but they both left off on a bad note.

“(The management) would pin everyone else’s ‘stuff’ on everyone else instead of work(ing on it themselves),” he said.

After a combined seven years working for Columbia Bowl, they figured it was time for a change.

The change? Well…

“We kind of quit,” Mercer said.

A video from CBS 21 local news is below. Pictures can also be seen by joining ulocal on WGAL.com.

David Mohimani also contributed to this story.

Potholes Plague Penn Manor Drivers and Others

By Eli Marcelino –

Don’t worry, its not a flat tire. It’s just a pothole.

Warmer temperatures may be a welcome relief for those weary of winter, but they don’t do local roads any favors.

This year, there have been 278 reports of potholes in Lancaster city’s streets and alleys. That compares to 510 during the same time frame last year and 309 in 2009.

Although no one is keeping track of the number of potholes that have opened up around Penn Manor, local drivers are definitely noticing them.

“It’s annoying,” said Aron Basile, a safety education teacher at Penn Manor High School. “We have so much bad weather causing this.”

Wendy Letavic, an English teacher at the high school, is one of the many people who complain about the potholes in the roads.

Letavic said that she has to go around them because she thinks that her car is going to fall apart.

“I think it is something that must be fixed because it could cause an accident or damage to your car,” she said, adding, “even though I know that it is expensive but necessary.”

Workers for contractor J.D. Eckman Inc., spent Monday and Tuesday repairing sections of North Prince Street in Lancaster city, where potholes have appeared in recent weeks.

“I hate it, specially when I’m on my way to school,” said Ariela Contreras, a senior.

On North Prince Street, sections of the roadway that failed after being repaved just four months ago are being repaired. The repairs are the responsibility of the contractor because the contract has not been completed.

Comets Focus on Red Land in Playoffs

By Connor Rowe –

The Penn Manor (12) basketball squad prepares for Red Land (6) in their first playoff appearance this year. The game will take place Wednesday, Feb. 23 at Red Land, Lewisberry, Pa. at 7 p.m.

Penn Manor will be the true underdog in this matchup statistically, but Comets senior, captain, fan favorite and point guard, Brian Ramsey, sees the game differently.

Ramsey said he can’t wait for the coming contest.

They’ve got some big boys, but we are ready for them,” Ramsey said.

Basketball Team Sports — Head coach Charlie Detz is preparing Penn Manor basketball team for district playoffs. Photo by Connor Rowe

Red Land has two 6-11 players, Mike Zangari, a junior, and D1 commit to La Salle, senior Steve Zack.

Manor has a plan to get around these so-called, “big boys.”

“We have two new defensive sets and offensive play to move their big guys out,” said Ramsey.

Another way of achieving success by the Comets is by scrimmaging Manheim Township High School’s basketball team, where they executed their new tactics.

Brian Ramsey closed with, “I think we have a very good chance to win; (coach Charlie) Detz has been preparing us well. Everybody wants to win.”