LANCASTER UNLOADS IN ROUT

Team Ties Season High with Six Homers, Winning 14-4

After scoring only 22 runs in the previous seven games, the Lancaster Barnstormers busted loose with a six-homer attack on Thursday evening, routing the Charleston Dirty Birds, 14-4.

The win moved Lancaster (14-9) to within 1 ½ games of York in the second half race.

Andretty Cordero started the salvo with a fly ball onto the right field deck off Kit Scheetz (5-9) in the bottom of the first inning.  Shawon Dunston, Jr. connected with two men aboard in the bottom of the second as Lancaster took the lead for good at 4-2.  Anthony Peroni immediately followed with his first homer of the season for a 5-2 edge.

The assault continued into the third inning when Joseph Carpenter and Wilson Garcia produced the second pair of back-to-back long balls in the game.

In the fourth, Garcia connected again with the fifth of six consecutive hits off reliever Wilson Lopez.

Overall, the Barnstormers picked up 18 hits with Cordero, Carpenter and Garcia collecting three apiece.  Cordero, Dunston and Garcia had three-RBI games.

All of the runs came in support of Jared Lakind (6-3), who allowed four runs on six hits over five innings.  Diego Goris and Tillman Pugh delivered consecutive two-out RBI hits for Charleston in the second as the Dirty Birds took their only lead of the night.  Jalen Miller slugged a two-run homer in the top of the fifth.

Three Lancaster relievers combined to throw no-hit baseball over the final four innings.

Lancaster will head to Staten Island to open a three-game series against the FerryHawks on Friday evening.  Nile Ball (6-4) will make the start for Lancaster against lefty Jesse Remington (3-4) in a rematch of last Saturday’s DH opener.  Fans may tune into FloBaseball at 6:55.

NOTES:  Lancaster also hit six homers in a 17-6 drubbing of Spire City on July 8 in the second half opener…Prior to the game, the Barnstormers had had only one pair of back-to-back home runs all season (July 13 at Long Island)…Garcia had the first multi-homer game since Kelly Dugan hit a pair against Lexington on June 6…Nolan Long, the tallest player in franchise history at 6’10”, made his debut…After hitting Bobby Bradley and walking Juan Perez, the right-hander struck out the side in order.