Lancaster Stormers 8, Long Island Ducks 7
Saturday night’s game with the Long Island Ducks got scarily close, but Lancaster manager Ross Peeples had some cards left to play.
The ace in the hole on Saturday night was Cody Stashak, who retired the Ducks in 1-2-3 fashion in the top of the ninth to hold an 8-7 victory in the middle game of a three-game series.
Most of the night belonged to Lancaster. Noah Bremer (4-1) fanned nine over six innings, yielding one run, and the Stormers took advantage of sloppy Long Island defense early to build an 8-1 lead.
Evan Alexander and Yeison Coca opened the night with singles off Juan Hillman (2-4), and Alexander scored when left fielder misplayed the Coca hit. Mason Martin followed with a grounder to third, and arrived safely at first when Troy Viola’s throw forced Taylor Kohlwey to stumble off the bag. Viola also was guilty of a bad throw on a grounder by Alex Isola, adding a second runner. Joseph Carpenter drilled a deep fly ball to the warning track, allowing both runners to advance. Nick Lucky followed with a two-run single to left center for a 4-0 lead.
Long Island only reached Bremer for Kole Kaler’s solo homer in the third, and the Stormers went right back to work. Martin opened the third with an infield single. Isola and Carpenter followed with singles to the right side. Lucky stretched the lead to 5-1 with a sac fly, and Isola was ushered home on a balk for a 6-1 edge.
An RBI double by Isola and Lucky’s homer to right produced an 8-1 lead through the fifth.
Long Island picked up three off Steven Lacey in the seventh. Two came on a homer by Justin O’Conner; the third scored when Chris Roller’s deep fly to center was lost in the twilight by Danny Amaral for a triple. Amaral recovered in time to start a relay that cut down Roller at the plate on his bid for an inside-the-park home run.
Billy Sullivan yielded a leadoff walk to Town in the eighth and quickly made a bad pickoff throw. The right-hander retired the next two and sawed off Kohlwey, who hit an unplayable dribbler toward third baseman Blake Mayberry for an RBI single. A wild pitch moved Kohlwey to second, and the runner scored on a double into the left field corner by Ronaldo Flores. Mayberry threw away a grounder by O’Conner to cut the lead to 8-7.
Stashak retired pinch hitter Ed Johnson on a deep fly to right, then got Kaler on a liner to center. Roller grounded out to end the game as Stashak picked up his first Lancaster save.
Max Green (0-3) and David Griffin (4-1) will have a rematch of the opener of the current six-game series Sunday afternoon at 2:00. The game will be carried live on Blue Ridge 11 and FloBaseball.
NOTES: Bremer has won four straight decisions…Lucky had seven RBI over a span of four plate appearances…Martin has reached base in 15 straight games…Coca has been on in 14 straight…The Stormers are 12-4 in games opened by opposing left-handers…The game was the 400th played between the two teams over 20 seasons…It was Lancaster’s 195th win in the all-time series.
Staten Island FerryHawks 10, York Revolution 1
With a first pitch temperature of a beautiful 83 degrees and a breeze blowing out to left field, Staten Island took the field at SIUH Community Park looking to notch a win—and they delivered in dominant fashion. The FerryHawks shut out the York Revolution, 10-0.
After a quiet first four innings from both teams, Staten Island broke things open in the bottom of the fifth. With one out and Matt Scheffler on third, Kolby Johnson hit a dribbler to shortstop. The throw home was too late, allowing Scheffler to score while Johnson reached on a fielder’s choice. Alberto Osuna followed with a single to right field, and Nick Decker drew a walk to load the bases. That set the stage for Christhian Rodriguez, who launched a grand slam over the right-center field wall—his first hit in a FerryHawks uniform. Staten Island added one more run in the inning when Mark Contreras singled to left, scoring Eddy Diaz from second. After five innings, the FerryHawks held a commanding 6-0 lead.
The offense stayed hot in the sixth. Osuna singled to center, bringing home Johnson from second. A batter later, Decker crushed a two-run homer to right. Staten Island’s final run came when Pablo Sandoval lined a ball to right field, scoring Rodriguez.
Starting pitcher Matt Dunaway built on his strong outing last weekend against Hagerstown with another impressive performance. He threw six scoreless innings, allowing four hits and striking out four.
The FerryHawks racked up 11 hits, with every player in the starting lineup collecting at least one. Rodriguez and Osuna each notched two hits in their debut with the team.
The pitching staff held York to just six hits total. Alex Mack, Luis Guzman, and Clay Helvey each pitched a scoreless inning to close out the shutout win.
With the 10-0 victory, Staten Island will look to secure the series win against York in tomorrow’s matinee, scheduled for 1:30 PM.
Lexington Legends 14, High Point Rockers 10
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Trailing 14-5 after six innings, the High Pont Rockers rallied for five runs over the final three innings before falling 14-10 to the Lexington Legends on Saturday night at Legends Field.
The Rockers (35-15) lead in the Atlantic League’s South Division is at six games after Southern Maryland (28-21) beat Gastonia 8-3 on Saturday night.
With 13 games remaining, the Rockers have a magic number of seven to clinch their second South Division first half title in the last three years.
The Rockers entered the day with the fifth-best winning percentage in professional baseball at .745.
The Rockers tallied three times in the first inning as Luis Gonzalez led off the game with his ninth homer of the year and, following a single by Drew Mendoza, Alex Dickerson blasted a two-run homer.
The Legends responded in the bottom of the second with five runs to take a 7-3 lead. J.T. Riddle started it with a hit off Rockers starter Pat Gardner (L, 0-1) followed by a Dylan Rock two-run homer. Pedro Gonzalez walked, stole second and scored on a double to right by Andy Atwood. Jerry Huntzinger then doubled off the wall in right to score Atwood and put the Legends ahead 4-3. Riddle’s single scored Atwood and Brady Whalen’s single brought home Riddle. E.J. Cumbo added an RBI single to complete the scoring.
Lexington grew its lead to 8-3 in the third when Riddle singled to score Brian Fuentes who doubled to lead off the inning.
The Rockers tallied twice in the fourth to close the margin to 8-5 in the fourth on an Aidan Brewer home run and back-to-back doubles by Gonzalez and Mendoza. But the Legends struck reliever Kyle Halbohn for two runs in the bottom of the fourth and four more in the sixth to surge to a 14-5 advantage.
The Rockers rallied with three runs in the top of the seventh on an RBI double from Alex Dickerson and a two-run double by Max Viera. In the top of the eighth, Gonzalez hit a two-run homer to pull the Rockers to within four at 14-10.
Zach Vennaro kept the Legends scoreless in the seventh and Jameson McGrane retired the side in order in the eighth.
The Rockers were able to put a pair of runners on base in the top of the ninth but could not bring either around to score.
Lexington’s Wilton Castillo (W, 3-4) went five innings and allowed seven hits and five runs while striking out six. Jonathan Haab (S, 6) earned the save by pitching the ninth inning.
Gonzalez finished the night with three hits, three RBI and four runs scored while Dickerson had a pair of hits and three RBI. Riddled led the Legends with four hits and three runs batted in.
The series finale is slated for a 2 p.m. start on Sunday afternoon at Legends Field.
Hagerstown Flying Boxcars 7, Charleston Dirty Birds 6 (10 innings)
(Hagerstown, Md) The Hagerstown Flying Boxcars grabbed an extra inning 7–6 victory
over the Charleston Dirty Birds Saturday night thanks to Mark Black’s two–run shot in
the bottom of the eigth, and Cary Arbolida’s three for four night.
In a back–and–forth game at Meritus Park, the Flying Boxcars’ bats showed up and
prevailed in the bottom of the Tenth. Cary Arbolida recorded the first RBI as he singled
to right in the bottom of the third. Ossie Abreu scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of
the fourth before later doing it again in the bottom of the 10th. In his professional debut,
Mark Black drilled a two–run shot to left field to tie the game at 4 in the bottom of the
eighth. And after the Dirty Birds pitcher Manuel Alvarez walked in Roidel Martinez to tie
the game at six in the 10th, Dante Leach drilled a fair ball down the left field line to walk
it off.
Rafael Kelly entered in relief in the top of the ninth inning and was awarded the win after
two innings pitched and allowing two earned runs on two hits, no walks, three strikeouts,
and nine batters faced.
The Flying Boxcars have one more home game at Meritus Park on Sunday with a 2
P.M. first pitch and then have a day off before hosting the Southern Maryland Blue
Crabs for the second series of the 2025 Blue Eyed Brawl on Tuesday.