Barnstormin’

	Monte Mansfield 1-0, 0.00 ERA		Mike Connolly 3-3, 6.24 ERA

Two more games were taken off the schedule and the Barnstormers didn’t get any closer to first place. That means the odds of chasing down York became a little longer. The gap is four games with nine to play.

The Barnstormers don’t seem particularly concerned about the math. There’s an upbeat feeling surrounding the team, which has allowed it to believe this race is far from over.

“Until you’re mathematically eliminated, of course, things happen in this game,” pitching coach Rick Wise said. “Absolutely. If we can get to that last series with York, hell yeah it can happen. You better believe it.”

The best playoff scenario is clear: The Barnstormers need to trim the deficit to three games and then win four of five against York to close out the season. That would leave the teams tied and would give Lancaster the tiebreaker advantage.

This is how the schedules look:

LANCASTER: vs. Bridgeport today, 3 at Somerset.
YORK: at Long Island today, 3 at Newark.

As for the final five games, the Barnstormers are at York Thursday and Friday, play a day-night doubleheader Saturday with games in both cities and finish at home on Sunday. The hope in the Barnstormers’ clubhouse is that all of those games will matter.

“I feel that everybody in this room realizes what we have to do to win and what’s at stake,” designated hitter Matt LeCroy said. “Hopefully, we can keep it down to where there’s a chance and make that last series pretty exciting. We’ll wait and see.”

Lineups …

31-30	30-31
Mike Woods, LF	Henry Mateo, CF
Gary Harris, 2B	Alex Prieto, SS
Matt LeCroy, DH	Luis Lopez, 3B
Bryan Sabatella, RF	Jesse Hoorelbeke, 1B
Ian Bladergroen, 1B	Ryan Bear, LF
Lloyd Turner, 3B	Jay Caligiuri, DH
David Castillo, C	Brandon Florence, RF
Mike Caruso, SS	Wilson Batista, 2B
Jutt Hileman, CF	Luis Rodriguez, C

Scoring summary …

FINAL: Barnstormers 17, Bluefish 6

Stormers 1st: Harris’ home run scores Woods. LeCroy hits solo home run.
Lancaster leads 3-0.

Bluefish 2nd: Batista’s single scores Bear and Caligiuri. Mateo’s single scores Batista.
Game tied at 3.

Stormers 3rd: LeCroy’s double scores Harris. Prieto’s fielding error scores LeCroy. Castillo’s single scores Sabatella and Bladergroen. Hileman’s home run scores Castillo and Caruso. LeCroy’s double scores Woods and Harris. Sabatella’s groundout scores LeCroy. Bladergroen hits solo home run.
Lancaster leads 14-3.

Bluefish 5th: Caligiuri’s single scores Mateo and Hoorelbeke.
Lancaster leads 14-5.

Bluefish 7th: Caligiuri’s ddouble scores Bear.
Lancaster leads 14-6.

Stormers 7th: Sabatella’s groundout scores Harris. Bladergroen’s single scores LeCroy.
Lancaster leads 16-6.

Stormers 8th: Woods hits solo home run.
Lancaster leads 17-6.