LATE SURGE CARRIES LONG ISLAND

Ducks Top Stormers for Second Straight Night

Frank Schwindel snapped a 3-3 tie with an RBI single to left in the bottom of the seventh inning, and the Long Island Ducks rolled on to an 11-3 win over the Lancaster Stormers in the second game of a four-game series.

With one out in the seventh, lefty Max Green (0-1) walked Nick Heath and Ivan Castillo in succession.  He remained in the game to face the lefty batting Jackie Bradley, Jr., who lined out to center.  Manager Ross Peeples went to 6’10” right-hander Nolan Long.  Schwindel reached Long for a ground single through the left side to score Heath with the lead run.  Chance Sisco followed with a two-run double to right center.

The Ducks piled on five more runs in the bottom of the eighth.  Long opened the inning by hitting Aaron Antonini with a pitch.  Tyler Dearden singled to right, and Scott Kelly blooped a base hit to right to extend the lead to 7-3.  Heath added another single to right for an 8-3 lead, chasing Long.  Augie Sylk allowed the two inherited runners, plus an unearned run of his own, to score.  He finally ended the five-run eighth with a strikeout of Antonini.

Shawon Dunston, Jr. homered to right off Wei-Yin Chen to open the night, but the lead was short-lived.  Long Island responded with three two-out runs in the bottom of the inning, coming on consecutive two-out doubles by Sisco and Hector Gomez.

Gaige Howard got a run home with a ground ball in the third, and a bases loaded walk to Joseph Carpenter tied the game with a bases loaded walk off John La Rossa (1-0) in the sixth.  La Rossa settled down to strike out Chad Sedio, induce a force at home out of Trace Loehr and get Dunston to ground out to keep the game tied.

Lancaster will send southpaw Brady Tedesco to the mound in the third game of the series, Saturday evening.  Long Island counters with right-hander Daniel Corcino.  Fans may tune into FloBaseball, beginning at 6:30.

NOTES:  Lancaster has stranded 25 runners in the two games…The team has had the bases loaded in five different innings, scoring only two runs…The club is 0-for-8 with the sacks full…Isan Diaz and Cristian Santana have had back-to-back multi-hit games…Cocalico’s Nick Lucky singled into right as a pinch hitter in the ninth…Donegal’s Kyle Hess reached on an error later in that same inning