Staten Island 8, Lexington 7

The FerryHawks defeated the Lexington Counter Clocks by a score of 8-7 on Sunday afternoon in Staten Island. It was “Veterans Salute” Day at the ballpark as the FerryHawks partnered with the Tunnel To Towers Foundation to honor all of our service men and women.

The FerryHawks got the crowd going early thanks to some stellar defense in the 1^st inning that limited Lexington’s offensive push. A Ricardo Cespedes to Angel Aguilar relay nabbed a runner tagging up to third, while a Brandon Pugh diving catch prevented an extra-base hit. In the bottom half of the inning, Ricardo Cespedes, Roldani Baldwin, and Luis Castro all picked up an RBI each to give the FerryHawks a 3-1 lead early in this contest. In the 4^th, a Garrett Kueber homerun extended the lead to 5-1.

The Counter Clocks, facing the reality of getting swept, did not go down easy. The visiting squad managed to rally all the way back and bring the game to 5-5, sending this contest to extras. In the 10^th, Lexington was able to score 2 runs and take a 7-5 lead, their first of the game.

With their backs against the wall, the FerryHawks sent Luis Castro up to bat with two runners on and one out. Castro, with two strikes against him, ripped a base hit into left field that brought home both the tying and winning run to lead the FerryHawks to victory in this contest! This was the 4^th win in a row for the FerryHawks and it completed their first series sweep of the season.

The FerryHawks will have an off day on Monday before continuing this homestand on Tuesday.

York 12, Lancaster 7

The Lancaster Barnstormers drilled York for five runs on six hits in the first inning on Sunday afternoon.

It wasn’t enough.

York roared back to take the lead in the bottom of the fourth inning and sailed to a 12-7 victory over the ‘Stormers to complete a three-game sweep.

Melvin Mercedes opened the game with a single off the right field wall and scored on a double to right center by Andretty Cordero.  With two outs, Wilson Garcia singled into center to score the second run.  Joseph Carpenter singled, and Shawon Dunston, Jr. gave the Barnstormers a 5-0 lead with a three-run homer to the right field picnic area.

York switched pitchers after the first inning, and the combination of six relievers allowed 10 more hits, but the Barnstormers were only able to add two more runs.

Troy Stokes, Jr. belted his fourth home run of the series in the bottom of the first off Jared Lakind (5-3).  The Revs added one more in the second and another in the third to cut Lancaster’s lead to 5-4.  The Barnstormers built the lead back to 6-4 on an RBI single by Cordero in the top of the fourth, but York surged ahead in the bottom of the inning and never looked back.

Trent Giambrone reached on a fielding error by third baseman Trace Loehr.  Lakind hit Tomo Otosaka with a pitch, and Stokes singled to load the bases.  Lakind coaxed a double play out of Drew Mendoza on which Giambrone scored, but Lakind walked pinch hitter Alexis Pantoja.  Manager Ross Peeples went to his bullpen for Bret Clarke.  Clarke uncorked the fourth wild pitch of the day, then allowed an opposite field home run to Jacob Rhinesmith as the Revs grabbed the lead.

After a single by Dunston and a triple by Jack Conley brought Lancaster within one in the seventh, Ryan January slammed York’s third homer of the game, a blast to dead center, with a man aboard to ice the afternoon.

Lancaster will send Jeff Bain (1-0) to the mound on Tuesday evening at 6:35.  He will match up against High Point’s Jheyson Manzueta.  Fans may tune into FloBaseball at 6:30.

NOTES:  Carpenter extended his hitting streak to 14 games…He is 28-for-56 (.500) in that stretch…Cordero extended a streak to 12 with a three-hit game…He is 22-for-55 (.400)…Dunston is 12-for-22 (.545) in a six-game streak…Lancaster is batting .367 (186-507) as a team in its 14 games in the second half…The three errors tied a season-high for the Barnstormers…They had not committed more than one in a game since July 4.

High Point 10,  Long Island 3
 

HIGH POINT, N.C. – High Point’s Mickey Jannis bparreecame the first nine-game winner in the Atlantic League this season and the Rockers reached the 50 win milestone faster than any other club in franchise history with a 10-3 win over Long Island on Sunday afternoon at Truist Point. The Rockers took the series two games to one and in the process became the first ALPB team with 50 wins this season.

Jannis, a knuckleballer, went six innings and struck out six while scattering six hits. He improved to 9-3 on the season as the High Point offense supported him with 14 hits and took advantage of three Long Island errors.

The Rockers reached their 50^th win faster than any other team in club history. At 50-27, the Rockers needed just 77 games to reach the half century mark. The next fastest club was the 2021 team that needed 90 games (50-40) to get to the record. In addition, the Rockers moved back into first place in the Atlantic League’s South Division at 9-5, a half-game in front of Gastonia at 8-5.

High Point scored twice in the first inning off Long Island starter Robert Stock (L, 5-2) who was coming off a no-hitter in his last outing. Shed Long, Jr. led off with a double followed by a walk to D.J. Burt. After Long took third on a wild pitch, Long Island catcher Joe DeCarlo threw to second to try and catch a stealing Burt but the throw sailed past second and into the outfield, allowing Long, Jr. to score and moving Burt to third. Ben Aklinski’s ground out to second brought home the Rockers’ second run of the inning.

The Rockers added a single run in the second on an infield hit by Michael Martinez and an RBI single from Burt. Long Island cut the deficit to 3-1 with a run in the top of the third on a triple by former Rocker Trent Taylor and an RBI single from Boog Powell.

High Point extended its advantage to 6-1 in the third inning when Ryan Grotjohn singled home Beau Taylor and Michael Russell delivered a two-run single.

Long Island scored twice in the fourth on a walk to Alex Dickerson, a single by Brian Goodwin and a two-run double from Trent Taylor. But that would be all the runs the Ducks could muster.

Stock departed after five innings, having allowed 13 hits and all 10 runs while walking two and striking out three.

High Point added a run in the fourth when Burt reached on an error and scored on a double by Daikan Yoh. The Rockers went out in front 10-3 with three runs in the fifth. Brian Parreira hit an RBI double, Burt brought home a run with an infield ground out and Aklinski knocked in a run with a triple.

“It’s great to win the series from Long Island and last night’s win was important but today we came out and really swung the bats and Mickey did a nice job,” said Rockers manager Jamie Keefe. “The bullpen was awesome and anytime you play at home and have a chance to take a series from Long Island, that’s awesome.”

High Point’s Neil Ramirez, who came off the injured list this weekend after not having pitched since May 12, retired all six batters in the seventh and eighth innings, logging a pair of strikeouts. Cam Bedrosian fanned all three hitters he faced in the ninth to seal the win.

“We’ve got a really hot ball club coming in here in Lancaster so it will be good to get (Monday) off and then get ready for that series,” said Keefe.

Long, Jr. led the Rockers with four hits while Burt finished with three runs scored. Burt, Aklinski and Russell each finished with a pair of RBI. Long Island was led by Taylor and Powell who each had a pair of hits.

The Rockers will have an off-day on Monday before resuming their homestand on Tuesday at 6:35 p.m. against the Lancaster Barnstormers. The game will be streamed live on FLO Baseball and will also be available on the Mixlr app.

Spire City 11, Charleston 10

FREDERICK, MD – After Saturday night’s walk off win, the Ghost Hounds found themselves in yet another dramatic contest on Sunday afternoon in the rubber match with Charleston. Despite a late rally, the Ghost Hounds were able to hold down the win.

In his first start of the season, Zac Rosscup got through a scoreless first inning with two strikeouts. The second inning was a bit of a different story, as the Dirty Birds got to him for three runs. After Tillman Pugh beat out a double play ball which saw a run score, a Yovan Gonzalez double and bases loaded walk to Telvin Nash gave them an early lead.

Spire City answered right back in their half of the second with three of their own. After Osvaldo Abreu and Scott Kelly both worked two out walks, Leobaldo Cabrera singled in two runs, and Luke Becker added another right behind him.

They batted around again in the fourth, plating another three. Luke Becker beat out a double play ball, which saw a run score. Jose Marmolejos and Kole Cottam both added RBI singles to make it 6-3 Ghost Hounds.

The Ghost Hounds were able to chase starter Colt Webb after 4.2 innings, and after Charleston went to a lefty out of the bullpen, Jose Marmolejos lined a single into right field to push the lead to 7-3. It became 9-3 in the seventh when Jimmy Paredes snuck a ball inside the right field foul pole for his 14^th home run of the season.

Charleston would refuse to go down without a fight, however. In the eighth inning, Yovan Gonzalez blasted a three run homer to left field to cut the deficit to 9-6. After back to back singles with two outs brought the tying run to the plate, Donald Goodson was called upon out of the bullpen. Goodson was able to strike out Telvin Nash to strand a pair.

In the bottom of the eighth, the Ghost Hounds got two important insurance runs courtesy of a Scott Kelly single.

Goodson remained on for the ninth, but allowed four runs on a pair of two run home runs from Diego Goris and Yovan Gonzalez. After walking the potential tying run, Goodson got Dwight Smith Jr to ground out to second base to end the game and clinch a series win for the Ghost Hounds.

Notes:

-      The series saw 57 combined runs, with Spire City being outscored 29-28

-      Zac Rosscup earned the win in his first start, allowing three runs over five innings while striking out seven

Southern Maryland 12, Gastonia 8