BARNSTORMERS STAY HOT AT HOME

The Lancaster Barnstormers unleashed a four-homer attack on Tuesday evening to defeat the New Britain Bees in the opener of a four-game series and seven-game homestand at Clipper Magazine Stadium.

It was the seventh win in the last eight home games for the ‘Stormers.

Devon Torrence opened the salvo of home runs with a drive to right center field leading off the bottom of the first inning.  Two batters later, Caleb Gindl connected for a 2-0 lead.  Andrew Aplin crushed a tiebreaking homer off Rainy Lara (5-8) in the third inning while Joe Terdoslavich provided an insurance run with a liner onto the right field deck in the fifth.  All of the blasts were solo shots.

The only other Lancaster run scored in the first when Terdoslavich sliced a double into the left field corner, took third on a single to right by Aplin and scored when Anderson De La Rosa singled through the left side.

Jared Lakind (5-4) only surrendered runs in the top of the third, losing his 3-0 lead.  He hit one-time Barnstormer Zach Collier with a pitch.  Collier stole second and scored from third base with two outs when Bijan Rademacher singled to right.  Jason Rogers unloaded a two-run blast to right center to knot the score at three.

Lakind worked 5 2/3 innings, yielding six hits and the three runs.  The lefty walked none and struck out two.  He benefitted from stellar defensive play in the infield with Terdoslavich and Melvin Mercedes making back-to-back diving catches in the second inning.

Lancaster’s bullpen pitched hitless baseball for the remainder of the night with Alejandro Chacin finishing the sixth inning.  Matt Marksberry survived a walk and an error in the seventh, and Scott Shuman was perfect in the eighth inning.  Cody Eppley issued a two-out walk to Logan Moore in the ninth before getting Collier to fly out to shallow left for Eppley’s 17^th save.

NOTES:  Aplin extended his hitting streak to 17 games, three shy of the club record…He is batting .409 (27-for-66) in the streak…Gift Ngoepe tripled to left center in his first Atlantic League at bat…Torrence has hit safely in eight straight games, going 13-for-30…Terdoslavich is batting .419 (26-for-62) since July 17…Shuman threw his ninth straight scoreless inning.