Lefty Strikes Out 12 in Complete Game
Nate Reed came within one strike of a complete game shutout on Monday evening but still went the distance, striking out 12, in a 3-1 victory over the New Britain Bees in the opener of a four-game series at Clipper Magazine Stadium.
With the win, the Barnstormers climbed back to within two games of Southern Maryland in the Freedom Division race with seven left to play.
Reed (2-4) took a three-hit shutout into the ninth inning and fanned Yusuke Kajimoto and Jake McGuiggan to open the frame. The lefty worked the count to 2-2 on Bees third baseman Jovan Rosa and missed the outside corner to fill the count. Rosa took the next pitch over the left field wall to break the shutout. It was only a temporary lapse. Reed struck out Craig Maddox on four pitches to end the game, the first complete game effort by a Barnstormer this season.
Over the course of the evening, Reed threw 112 pitches, 80 for strikes. He walked only one, Conor Bierfeldt leading off the fifth inning. That walk was erased quickly on a double play.
Only two New Britain runners advanced to second base safely prior to the Rosa home run. Michael Crouse led off the second with a single and moved ahead on a ground out. Kajimoto and McGuiggan singled consecutively in the sixth.
The Barnstormers, as has often been the case with Reed on the mound, struggled to score. They came close in the third. With runners at first and third and two outs, league home run leader K.C. Hobson launched a towering fly ball to right center. Michael Crouse raced over, got a foot on the wall, got his glove over the eight-foot high barrier, and snapped the ball back into the field.
Sean Halton broke the scoreless tie in the sixth with a one-out solo homer off Anthony Marzi (5-5) over the batter’s eye, his 14th of the year. The Barnstormers would score a single run in each of the next two innings. In the seventh, Rico Noel tripled off the fence in center and scored when Lastings Milledge drilled a single into center.
Trayvon Robinson (single) and Anderson De La Rosa (double) combined to produce Lancaster’s third run before the first out in the eighth inning.
Lancaster and New Britain continue the series on Tuesday evening at 6:30. Bryan Evans (4-2) has the start for the Barnstormers against former Phillies starter Jonathan Pettibone (1-2). Fans may tune into Blue Ridge Cable 11, beginning at 6:30.
NOTES: At two hours, 28 minutes, the game tied the shortest nine-inning contest for the Barnstormers in 2017…Halton homered for the third time in four games…Noel needed a home run for the natural cycle but struck out in the eighth inning…Reed’s strikeout total matched his career high as a Barnstormer…He also fanned 12 against Camden on September 4, 2015…He now ranks fourth on the Barnstormers’ all-time career strikeout list with 243, passing Dwayne Pollok…He needs nine more to catch Eric Ackerman for third…The Barnstormers inked outfielder/second baseman Drew Doty to a contract, filling in for Blake Gailen, who signed with the LA Dodgers following Sunday’s game…Doty was 0-for-3 with a walk in his debut…Right-handed reliever Cody Hall is also leaving, having his contract purchased by the San Francisco Giants prior to Monday night’s game.
