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.