AtL Lancaster Stormers

This game belonged to the asylum

Published on July 1, 2008 under Atlantic League (AtL)
Lancaster Stormers News Release


Nearly five hours of pure chaos ended on a walkoff two-run homer by Matt LeCroy in the bottom of the 13th inning early Wednesday morning as the Lancaster Barnstormers knocked off the Somerset Patriots, 11-9, at Clipper Magazine Stadium.

The loss bumped the Patriots back into a first place tie with the Newark Bears, which won, 6-4, at York.

The game, which took four hours, 54 minutes, featured six home runs, four ejections, a bench clearing brawl, an out at home plate in extra innings and 11 pitchers.

With one out in the bottom of the 13th, Mike Woods reached base when the third strike from Brian Reith (4-2) skipped past catcher Jason Belcher for a wild pitch. Reith got Danny Gonzalez on a fly ball to center, but LeCroy took an 0-1 pitch onto the picnic canopies in right field for his fifth homer of the season and third in the last week.

Lancaster carried a 9-8 lead into the top of the ninth, but closer Jose Cabrera got into a shouting match with the Somerset dugout as well as third base umpire Joe Cruz. Cabrera sailed ball four behind Elliott Ayala, prompting his immediate ejection. Both benches emptied, and Cabrera was restrained by his own third baseman, Kevin Kotch, keeping the incident from getting worse.

Order was restored, and, with Judd Songster in the game, Ayala stole second and took third when he was hit by catcher Manny Mejia's throw. He scored on Sean Smith's sacrifice fly.

Lancaster had a big opportunity to win the game in the 11th. Woods led off the inning with a triple to the fence in left center. Somerset manager Sparky Lyle opted to intentionally walk both Gonzalez and LeCroy to load the bases. Mejia lifted a fly ball to left. Michael Ryan set up behind the ball, and made a perfect throw to the plate to double up Woods on a close play. Jutt Hileman grounded into a force play to close the inning.

The Barnstormers countered Ryan's solo homer in the first with four runs, three on a homer by Jutt Hileman. RBI singles by Lloyd Turner and LeCroy answered a homer by Vito Chiaravalloti, his third of the series, in the second for a 6-2 lead.

Matt Hagen tied the game at 7-7 in the fifth inning with a two-run homer to left, his second in two nights. Teuris Olivares, who would later be ejected for arguing a called third strike, doubled home an unearned run in the top of the seventh to put the Patriots in the lead, 8-7.

Lancaster again bounced back. Hileman and Dave Adamchick both singled with one out in the bottom of the seventh against Aaron Fultz, and Jordan Herr greeted Casey Cahill with an RBI single to left to tie the game. The Barnstormers then retook the lead when Olivares tried to start a double play on a grounder by Kotch, but flipped the ball past Ayala into left field.

Ricardo Gomez (3-2) pitched three scoreless innings of relief.

NOTES: LeCroy drove in four runs in the game and now has 11 runs in the last seven games...Somerset has hit eight homers in the series...Lancaster is 3-4 in extra inning games; Somerset is 3-5...Eric Ackerman (3-4) will pitch for Lancaster on Wednesday evening against Jim Magrane (1-4, 1-6)...Game time is 7:05.

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Atlantic League Stories from July 1, 2008


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