ROGERS HOMER DECIDES SLUGFEST

New Britain Rallies Past ‘Stormers, 12-11

Jason Rogers delivered the knockout blow in a heavyweight fight on Sunday afternoon.

The New Britain first baseman slammed a home run to left center field with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning to send the Bees to a 12-11 victory over the visiting Lancaster Barnstormers at New Britain Stadium.

Rogers connected with two outs and the bases empty off Bryan Harper (0-3), the fifth Lancaster pitcher of the afternoon.  None escaped the fury of the New Britain offense which rallied from a 10-4 deficit.

It appeared that the Barnstormers had pulled away with a a five-run sixth inning.  Doubles by Zach Shank and Brian Mayer combined to give Lancaster a 6-4 lead.  Devon Torrence walked, and Darian Sandford punched a two-run double inside the bag at first and took third on a late throw home.  A wild pitch scored Sandford with the fourth run of the inning.  Lancaster reloaded on a pair of walks, and K.C. Hobson singled through the right side for the 10-4 lead.

Taylor Motter singled home a pair  of runs off Alejandro Chacin in the bottom of the sixth to trim the lead to 10-6, but it was the seventh that proved toxic to the Lancaster staff.

Matt Marksberry struck out Alexi Amarista to start the inning, but Ozzie Martinez began a string of four straight hits that chased the lefty from the game.  Garrett Granitz took over, and Jonathan Galvez singled to right center, cutting the Lancaster lead to 10-9.  With runners at the corners, Bijan Rademacher stroked a ground ball to second baseman Dan Gamache who had it go through the legs for an error as the tying run scored.  Motter singled into center to drive home his fourth run of the afternoon and give the Bees an 11-10 lead.

Sandford walked with one out in the eighth, went to second on Gamache’s single to left and scored on a Joe Terdoslavich sac fly off Jim Fuller (2-1).

Jose Rosario walked Josh Bell to lead off the ninth, but allowed nothing else to earn his second save of the weekend and fourth of the year.

The Barnstormers open a four-game series against Sugar Land on Monday evening.  Buddy Baumann (2-4) will get the nod for Lancaster against right-hander Dallas Beeler (3-2).  Fans may tune into the Barnstormers YouTube Channel at 7:45 EDT.

NOTES:  Michael Martinez lost a 12-game hitting streak, striking out as a pinch hitter in the eighth…Dan Gamache had his sixth straight multi-hit game and his sixth straight game with an extra-base hit..Lancaster tallied six doubles while the Bees had three homers…Four different Barnstormers had multi-RBI games…Gamache’s error was the first by a Barnstormer in 84 1/3 innings…Mayer had his first extra base hit of the season.