Sands Buries Barnstormers

Somerset DH Homers Twice in 10-5 Win

Jerry Sands is torturing the Lancaster Barnstormers.

For the second consecutive evening, the Somerset Patriots’ DH homered twice, this time driving in four runs to lead Somerset to a 10-5 victory over the ‘Stormers in the middle game of a three-game series.

The loss knocks the Barnstormers lead over the Southern Maryland back to two games.

Sands singled home Scott Kelly with the first run of the game as Rommie Lewis (2-4) was greeted by three consecutive singles.

After a throwing error led to one run, and Aharon Eggleston made it 4-1 with a two-out RBI single to right, Sands hit his third home run of the series to right field for a 6-1 edge.

In case no one thought Sands could pull the ball, he led off the fifth inning with a home run just to the left of the batters’ eye, the deepest part of Clipper Magazine Stadium. In doing so, Sands became the first player to have consecutive multi-homer games against the Barnstormers in the 13-year history of the franchise.

Meanwhile, Mitch Atkins (4-3) and the Patriots bullpen kept the Barnstormers from mounting any type of big inning.

The Barnstormers put together three singles to open the fourth, then pulled off a double steal but managed only one run. Their first two runners reached in the fifth, and they failed to score. In the sixth, Lancaster loaded the bases with one out and scored on a single to right by Lastings Milledge, but again the damage was minimized by the Patriots bullpen.

Altogether, the Barnstormers collected 10 hits, all singles, on the night and drew seven walks. They were, however, only 4-for-18 with runners in scoring position and left 12 runners stranded over the final six innings.

The series concludes Thursday morning at 11:00 on the second Baseball in Education Day of the season. Lancaster will send right-hander Elih Villanueva (4-1) to the hill against lefty Rick Teasley (3-0), the league ERA leader. Fans may tune into the broadcast on the Barnstormers YouTube Channel, beginning at 10:45 AM.

NOTES: For the first time in 39 games, the Barnstormers failed to pick up an extra base hit…Blake Gailen singled home a run in the ninth and now has 499 hits in his Barnstormers career…Darian Sandford stole his 28th base of the season, putting him more than halfway to Quincy Foster’s franchise record of 55…K.C. Hobson stole his first base of the season on the back end of a fourth inning double steal, becoming the final position player on the Lancaster roster to steal a bag in 2017…Somerset has made only one error in six games against Lancaster this season.