Stormers Claim Sixth Straight as Rain Limits Play
Saturday night’s win over the Lexington Legends was short and sweet. And cold. And wet.
Lancaster unloaded three home runs to back another strong effort by Nile Ball, as the Stormers won their sixth straight, a 10-2 victory over the Legends in a game that was called after 4 ½ innings due to persistent rains at Clipper Magazine Stadium.
Ball (2-0) worked the distance, allowing four hits while walking one and striking out eight. His final strikeout, on what turned out to the be game’s final pitch, was the 300th as a Stormer for the Georgia native.
He allowed a first inning homer over the boards in left to Matt Bottcher in the top of the first, and the first three batters reached base in the second to produce a second run. Ball then got into a rhythm and retired 10 consecutive Lexington batters before Ryan Davis singled with one out in the fifth.
David Reckers (0-2) had a long night on the hill for the Legends. The right-hander yielded a two-run blast to the top of the left field hill by Cristian Santana with one out in the first. He had a chance to escape that inning with only those two runs on the board, but center fielder Kingston Liniak dropped a long fly ball by Nick Lucky that allowed a pair of two-out runs to score. Jack Conley reached on a bad throw, and Trace Loehr’s pop fly dropped out of the reach of shortstop Wilmin Candelario to score two more. When the inning concluded Reckers had thrown 47 pitches.
Shawon Dunston, Jr. unloaded a homer to right to start the second. Joseph Carpenter added an RBI single later that inning, and Isan Diaz connected for a two-run homer in the third to close the scoring.
The rain got noticeably heavier in the top of the fifth, and the umpires halted play as soon as Ball recorded his strikeout of Brady Whalen.
Lancaster will send Brad Markey (1-1) to the mound on Sunday against a new right-hander that Lexington plans to sign before the 3:00 game. Fans may tune into FloBaseball, beginning at 2:55.
NOTES: Club executives credited the stadium’s new artificial surface for being able to play the game at all…Diaz and Santana have both hit safely in all nine games thus far…Gaige Howard picked up his 11th and 12th walks of the season…The Stormers reached double figures for the third time in the six-game winning streak…Ball ranks third in Stormers history with the 300 strikeouts, having passed Johnny Anderson on Saturday evening…He is also now tied for fifth with 23 wins…He is chasing lefty Nate Reed in both categories.ReplyReply allForward