Lancaster 14, Long Island 8

The Lancaster Barnstormers built their biggest inning of the season, scoring nine runs in the bottom of the fourth en route to a 14-8 victory over the Long Island Ducks Tuesday evening at Clipper Magazine Stadium.

With York and Southern Maryland both also winning, the Barnstormers retained their 1 ½ game lead over the Blue Crabs and their 2 ½ game edge on the Revolution.  Lancaster’s magic number with both teams dropped to four.  In addition, Lancaster sliced its magic number with Long Island to two.

Trailing, 6-1, heading into the bottom of the fourth, the Barnstormers would rally against Augie Voight (0-1).  Wilson Garcia opened the inning with a double to right center.  Trayvon Robinson and Joseph Carpenter followed with walks to load the bases.  The first two runs came on outs a sacrifice fly by Jack Conley and a grounder by Trace Loehr with Carpenter in motion.

Then, the inning got away from Voight.  Melvin Mercedes singled into right to cut the lead to 6-4.  Yeison Coca singled as did Andretty Cordero to make it 6-5.  Voight left after walking Ariel Sandoval to load the bags.  Tom Hackimer took over, and Garcia greeted him with a rare three-run single on a drive off the boards in right.  Garcia took second on the throw to the plate and scored the eighth run of the inning when Robinson singled into right.  Carpenter and Conley added base hits to produce the ninth marker of the inning.

Cordero’s second sac fly of the night in the bottom of the fifth stretched the lead to 11-6, but the Ducks fought back.  A homer by Castro in the seventh and an RBI double by Lew Ford in the eighth brought the Ducks back to within three before Conley capped the scoring with a booming three-run homer to left in the bottom of the eighth.

Long Island opened with a four-run first inning off Brent Teller (11-6).  The Ducks scored their first tally on a ground single through the right side by Carlos Castro.  Brantley Bell reached on a scratch single to plate the second run, and Joe DeCarlo, the eighth batter of the inning drove a double down the left field line to score two more for the 4-0 lead.  Scott Kelly lined out to left center for the final out.

The Barnstormers picked up a run in the bottom of the third on a sacrifice fly to center by Cordero.  An RBI single by Ford and ensuing double by Ruben Tejada in the top of the fourth stretched the Long Island advantage to 6-1.

Lancaster will host the Ducks again on Wednesday evening.  Nile Ball (7-6) will make the start for Lancaster against Robert Stock (9-3).  Fans may tune into FloBaseball, starting at 6:25.

NOTES:  Cordero extended his league leading RBI total to 114, four shy of his record from last season…He has 29 RBI against the Ducks…Mercedes scored three runs and is now at 97 for the year, six shy of the franchise record…In winning his 11^th, Teller tied Dominic DiSabatino and Ball for the most wins in a season since the pandemic…Conley had Lancaster’s fourth five-RBI game of the season…Long Island used up its bench after losing DH Sam Travis to the double-hook rule and LF Brantley Bell to a foot injury from a foul tip.

York 11, High Point 6
YORK, Pa. – The High Point Rockers saw their five-game winning streak come to a halt on Tuesday night with an 11-6 loss to the York Revolution at WellSpan Park.

The game bounced back and forth and was tied 6-6 after six before the Revs pulled away, scoring the final five runs of the game.

The Rockers are now 34-22 in the second half. Gastonia was trailing 5-3 in the ninth inning on Tuesday evening.

Shed Long, Jr. sent the first pitch of the game over the fence in right-center off York starter Tom Sutera as High Point took a 1-0 lead.

York tied the game in the second on back-to-back doubles by Jhon Nunez and Jacob Rhinesmith. After High Point starter Craig Stem struck out the next two hitters, Alejandro Rivero singled to right to score Rhinesmith and give the Revs a 2-1 lead.

High Point forged a 2-2 tie in the third when Long, Jr. led off the inning with a single and stole second. He moved to third on a groundout by Daikan Yoh and scored on a sac fly by Ben Aklinski.

In the fourth, York opened the inning with consecutive singles by Nunez and Rhinesmith before Richard Urena doubled to left to bring Nunez across the plate and put York on top 3-2. But Stem was able to control the damage by striking out Ryan January and Rivero before getting Alexis Pantoja to ground out to first to end the inning.

The Revolution extended the lead to 5-2 in the fifth when Nellie Rodriguez singled and scored on a home run by Drew Mendoza, his 14^th of the year. Nunez then drew a walk, moved to second on a wild pitch by Stem and scored on a Urena single for a 6-2 lead. But the Rockers answered right back, scoring four times in the top of the sixth to re-tie the game at 6-6. A couple of York errors coupled with a two-run single by Long, Jr. and an RBI single from Aklinski sent the game into the bottom of the sixth.

With Austin Ross (L, 2-3) replacing Stem on the mound, Nellie Rodriguez homered with one aboard to lift York to an 8-6 lead. A solo homer by Urena in the seventh and a two-run single by Trey Martin off Kyle Halbohn gave the Revs an 11-6 lead after seven.

Long, Jr. and Diego Goris each had three hits for the Rockers with Long driving in two runs. Aklinski had one hit and two RBI to push his club record total to 102.

Tom Sutera went 5.2 innings before yielding to Emilker Guzman (W, 1-0) who went 1.1 innings and struck out one. Nunez finished with three hits for the Revs.

The second game of the three-game series is slated for a 6:30 p.m. start on Wednesday at WellSpan Park. The game will be streamed live on FLO Baseball and also available on the Mixlr app.

NOTES: The Rockers acquired Nilo Rijo from the New Jersey Jackals of the Frontier League. He is expected to fill-in in the outfield after John Daly aggravated a foot injury recently.

Staten Island 4, Spire City 2

Staten Island used a Jack Elliott homer and a Kolby Johnson RBI double to defeat Spire City 4-2 on Tuesday night at SIUH Community Park. Ryan Hartman (W, 6-6) went six innings for the Ferry Hawks, allowing four hits and striking out three.

Chris Shaw hit a solo homer in the second for Spire City, give the Ghost Hounds 200 home runs on the season. Spire City is just the third team in league history to reach 200 homers in a season, joining the 2023 Gastonia club and the 2021 Lexington team.

So. Maryland 5, Gastonia 3

Charleston 14, Lexington 9

Dwight Smith, Jr. had five hits and scored four runs to lead Charleston to a 14-9 win over Lexington Tuesday night at Counter Clocks Field. Smith knocked three doubles and drove in two runs while teammate Isaias Tejeda drove in four runs. Justin O’Conner added four hits for the Dirty Birds.
Derrick Adams (W, 6-9) earned the win for the Dirty Birds while Lexington’s Aaron Ochsenbein (L, 10-6) took the loss.