STORMERS LACK BIG HIT, FALL AT LONG ISLANDLate Rallies Come Up Short

The Lancaster Stormers battled back from a 7-1 deficit on Friday evening but left the bases loaded in each of the last two innings, falling, 7-4, to the Long Island Ducks in the opener of a three-game series at Fairfield Properties Ballpark.

With the loss, the Stormers stand only one game ahead of the York Revolution in the North Division second half race.

The Stormers picked up one run in the eighth on a Niko Hulsizer single and another on a bases loaded walk to Gaige Howard, cutting the Ducks lead to 7-3.  Al Alburquerque entered and struck out Joseph Carpenter for the second out.  Chris Proctor drilled a hot grounder down the first base line which was turned into the final out by Ryan McBroom.

Lancaster set the table again in the ninth with Hulsizer delivering another RBI single.  Closer Ramon Santos walked Mason Martin to load the bases, but Howard lined to third, closing out the night.

Frank Schwindel staked Long Island to an early lead with a two-run homer to left center off Brady Tedesco (0-3) in the bottom of the first.  Lancaster countered on a Joe Stewart homer in the third.  At that point, the game stalled until the bottom of the fifth when Nick Heath reached on a leadoff triple into the right field corner.  He scored on a single to center by JC Encarnacion.  In turn, Encarnacion stole second and third and rode home on a deep sac fly by McBroom.

Tedesco was chased by three straight singles to open the sixth.  All three runners scored on a third strike wild pitch and a single through the drawn-in infield to produce the 7-1 edge.

Wei-Yin Chen (5-5) tossed six strong innings to earn the win.  The former Baltimore lefty allowed only five hits without walking a batter.  He struck out six.

Max Green (8-4) will start for the Stormers on Saturday evening against right-hander Stephen Woods (5-4).  Fans may tune into the broadcast on FloBaseball, beginning at 6:30.

NOTES:  Six of Stewart’s eight hits have been for extra bases…Howard had his 26^th multi-hit game…Rees has yielded only two earned runs in his last 14 innings…Junior Mieses pitched the bottom of the eighth, his first work since July 5.