(June 21, 2022 – York, Pa.): The York Revolution opened a six-game homestand with an 11-4 loss to the Lancaster Barnstormers on Tuesday night at PeoplesBank Park. The Barnstormers used five home runs to power their offense.
Two batters into the game, the Barnstormers jumped ahead. A leadoff infield single by Shawon Dunston Jr. followed by a line drive homer to right from Melvin Mercedes made it 2-0.
Mercedes came around in the second inning to do more damage, this time on a two-run single to left-center with two outs to extend the lead to 4-0. Mercedes tried to stretch it into a double, but was thrown out thanks to a heads up Nellie Rodriguez who covered second base and applied the tag.
The Revs cut into the Lancaster lead in the bottom of the second with Connor Lien going yard to left-center field to lead off the inning. It was Lien’s fifth with York and his first at PeoplesBank Park. Troy Stokes Jr drove in another run on an RBI ground out to third base, pulling York within 4-2.
Kelly Dugan led off the third inning with an opposite field homer to left center field to make it 5-2 Lancaster. For Dugan, it was his 18th overall and 10th on the year against the Revs.
Revs starter Nick Travieso settled in for the middle three innings, tossing three scoreless frames and ending his day retiring 11 of his last 13 hitters faced.
The seventh inning was a brutal turn of events for the Revs. After the first two hitters reached, what looked to be a tailor-made double play ball hit umpire Joe DelBalso, giving Mercedes an infield hit on the umpire’s interference. Dugan’s at-bat resulted in a double play ball, although it scored a run, making it 6-2. Andretty Cordero snuck a ball just inside the left field foul pole for his eighth homer of the year, a two-run shot pushing the lead to 8-2 in favor of Lancaster.
After two runners reached against Barnstormers starter Nile Ball in the seventh, manager Ross Peeples opted to leave his starter in to face Elmer Reyes who made him pay, yanking a two-run single into left field and cutting the deficit to 8-4. Ball followed with a fly out and his eighth strikeout to end the frame, however, completing seven innings to earn the win.
Jhoendri Herrera came into the game in the eighth for his league leading 25th appearance. After a fly out, Colton Shaver lined one that kept carrying out to left center field and sailed over the wall for a solo homer. That gave the Barnstormers an insurance run, extending the lead to 9-4.
York worked two walks in the home eighth against reliever Cole Aker, but the righty forced Lenin Rodriguez to pop out to shallow right field to strand two in scoring position.
Lancaster’s barrage wouldn’t end, as with two outs in the ninth, LeDarious Clark drove a two-run long ball off the top right corner of the Arch Nemesis to push their lead to 11-4. For the Barnstormers, the five blasts topped a season-high for the team.
Reliever Chase Johnson finished things off in the ninth despite a leadoff single from Stokes Jr., and the Barnstormers took the series opener by an 11-4 margin.
Notes: Lien’s second inning homer expanded York’s franchise record home run streak to 19 consecutive games, with 35 being hit on that stretch. Carlos Franco walked in the eighth inning, marking 35 straight games in which he has reached base; that passes Chris Ashby (2008) for the second-longest on-base streak in club history, trailing only Nate Espy’s 45-gamer in 2007.
Up Next: York will send left hander Austin Nicely to the mound as they look to even the series on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m., opposite Lancaster’s Brooks Hall. It is Shred Fest and a PeoplesBank Kids Eat Free Wednesday. Tickets are on sale at YorkRevolution.com, (717) 801-HITS, and in-person at the Shipley Energy Ticket Office.
