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Gailen Drives Lancaster To Edge Of Championship Series

September 28, 2012 - Atlantic League (AtL) Lancaster Barnstormers

Blake Gailen continued to put on a show Friday evening, slamming a tiebreaking three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh inning to lead Lancaster to an 8-4 victory over the York Revolution as a suspended game was completed at Clipper Magazine Stadium.

Lancaster leads the best-of-five series, two games to none, with the remainder of the series to be played at Sovereign Bank Stadium, beginning Saturday at 6:30.

With one out in the bottom of the seventh, Gilberto Mejia picked up a walk from Mike Benacka (0-1). The right-hander hit Adam Godwin with his next pitch, bringing Gailen to the plate. The Barnstormers left fielder jumped on a 1-1 pitch, hammering it out of the yard to right center, for his third home run of the series. He has driven in nine.

The Barnstormers tacked on an extra run later in the inning. Benacka walked Fehlandt Lentini before leaving. Ryan Harvey greeted R.J. Rodriguez with a single to left center, sending Lentini to third. Travis Denker lined a single to right, his fourth RBI of the series.

Jeff Bennett and Tim Hamulack took it home from there with Hamulack striking out the side following an error in the ninth.

York had tied the game with a pair of runs in the top of the seventh. Beau Vaughan walked Andres Perez leading off the inning, and slugger Chris Nowak blooped a single to short right. Vaughan was able to get Johan Limonta on strikes for the first out, but Michael Hernandez, who had homered in the second inning on Thursday night, singled through the left side to cut the Barnstormers lead to 4-3. Lefty submarine thrower Ronnie Morales was summoned to face catcher Travis Scott, but the Revs countered with right-handed batting Solomon Manriquez. Manriquez hit a grounder toward short which rolled under Kody Kirkland's glove for an error as Nowak carried the tying run across the plate. Morales (1-0) proceeded to strike out the next two batters.

Lancaster had carried a 3-1 lead over from Thursday evening when rain halted play after four. Gailen had given the Barnstormers a 2-1 edge with a two-run homer off Corey Thurman in the fourth inning. Denker also followed with an RBI single that inning.

NOTES: Barnstormers pitching struck out 15 batters, more than in any regular season game, and has fanned 26 in the first two games...Manager Butch Hobson used six relievers to cover five innings...York was 1-for-18 with runners in scoring position, striking out 11 times...Lancaster stole five bases in the game, tying a season high...The club pulled off two double steals...One of those, executed by Mejia and Gailen in the fifth, led to a run as a Wade Korpi breaking ball got away from Scott and deflected to the third base dugout.

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Atlantic League Stories from September 28, 2012


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