Game 39: Stormers 14-5

EDITOR’S NOTE: ALB.com has a good interview with Matt LeCroy. It’s here.

	Nick Renault 0-1, 5.18 ERA		Darren Sack 2-2, 5.31 ERA

The Barnstormers have a chance to end two undesirable streaks today. They can win their first day game of the season and they can win their first road series outside of Pennsylvania.

For some reason, the Barnstormers aren’t so good under the sunshine (or overcast skies, for that matter). They are 0-8 in day games, including a pair of blown ninth-inning leads in a four-day span last month. Day/night splits are generally disregarded as random variation in baseball, so it’s easy to consider this futility a fluke.

The road woes are more disconcerting because some teams consistently struggle in unfriendly environments. The Barnstormers have played five road series against teams other than York. They were swept by Long Island, Southern Maryland and Somerset (in a four-gamer). They’ve played two series at Newark and lost five of the seven games.

So Nick Renault takes the mound with a little history against him. Renault’s season has been up and down to this point. Is he the guy who took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and posted this line in his debut?

7.2 IP

4 H

2 R

2 ER

0 BB

4 K

Or is he the guy who has posted this line in his last three starts?

16.2 IP

22 H

12 R

12 ER

8 BB

6 K

The Barnstormers obviously hope it’s Door No. 1. Renault has exhibited grood command in three of his four outings — issuing one or zero walks. He had one six-walk performance that looks like an outlier.

This is the end of a tough six-game road trip against a pair of first-place teams. If the Barnstormers can pull out a win today, they’ll return home with a split. All things considered, that wouldn’t be so bad.

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Lineups …

(14-24)	(21-16)
Mike Woods, LF	Richard Lewis, 3B
Lloyd Turner, RF	Gary Cates, SS
Danny Gonzalez, SS	Nic Jackson, CF
Manny Mejia, DH	Josh Rabe, DH
Jutt Hileman, CF	Brett Bonvechio, 1B
Kyle Nichols, 1B	L.J. Biernbaum, RF
Ivanon Coffie, 3B	Jason Phillips, C
Lance Burkhart, C	Ron Davenport, LF
Juan Francia, 2B	Rob Gandolfo, 2B

Scoring summary …

Barnstormers	320	050	031	14	17	0
Riversharks	300	020	000	5	11	0

WP: Nick Renault (1-1)
LP: Darren Sack (2-3)

FINAL: Barnstormers 14, Riversharks 5

Stormers 1st: Mejia’s double scores Turner. Hileman’s single scores Gonzalez. Nichols’ fielder’s choice scores Mejia.
Lancaster leads 3-0.

Riversharks 1st: Bonvechio’s double scores Cates, Jackson and Rabe.
Game tied at 3.

Stormers 2nd: Gonzalez’s single scores Francia and Woods.
Lancaster leads 5-3.

Stormers 5th: Nichols’ double scores Gonzalez and Mejia. Burkhart’s single scores Nichols. Turner’s single scores Burkhart and Francia.
Lancaster leads 10-3.

Riversharks 5th: Phillips’ double scores Rabe and Bonvechio.
Lancaster leads 10-5.

Stormers 8th: Coffie’s double scores Gonzalez. Burkhart’s single scores Nichols and Coffie.
Lancaster leads 13-5.

Stormers 9th: Hileman’s single scores Gonzalez.
Lancaster leads 14-5.

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Box score:

RECORD: 15-24

PLAYER OF THE GAME: Danny Gonzalez (3-for-5 with four runs scored)

Gonzalez raised his average to .301 and extended his errorless streak to 28 games. He is remarkable. He has played every inning, despite the Atlantic League not having many off days. He’s tied with Mike Woods for the team lead in hits, is second to Woods in runs scored and is sporting a .405 on-base. All of this at shortstop, the most important defensive position on the field.

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The pitchers:

*Nick Renault had an uneven performance:

5 IP

8 H

5 R

5 ER

3 BB

1 K

The righthander struggled early, recovered well enough to retire 10 out of 12 batters at one point, before struggling again in the fifth inning. Renault earned his first Atlantic League win, although his ERA has climbed to 5.83 and he has allowed 17 earned runs in his last 21 2/3 innings.

*Yamel Guevara returned to the bullpen after one rough start. He fired two scoreless innings. It looks like this might be the role he’s best suited for at the moment.

*Pat Cassa has fired 4 1/3 scoreless innings since his ninth-inning struggles against Long Island on May 26. Putting pitchers in the right roles makes a world of difference.

*Ricardo Gomez pitched a scoreless ninth. This was his second consecutive relief appearance, so it appears he has been moved to the pen to make room for Tim McClaskey, who is about to be activated off the disabled list.

*A big hitting day takes some of the pressure off the pitching. Even though the Barnstormers allowed 11 hits and 14 baserunners, no one pays much attention because the offense stole the show.

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The hitters:

*This offense is starting to resemble the all-or-nothing 2007 team. During this road trip, the Barnstormers scored 30 runs on 40 hits in their three wins. They scored five runs on 13 hits in their three losses.

*Every player had at least one hit Wednesday, and seven players had at least two hits, so this was a day for some batting averages to get healthy.

*Ivanon Coffie is breaking out. He has three doubles in his last five at-bats.

*Lance Burkhart is returning to form. He’s 4-for-9 with five RBIs in his last two games to drag his average back up to .220.

*Juan Francia collected two hits to climb back over the Mendoza line at .207.

*Lloyd Turner is 7-for-18 in his last five games and is up to .241.

The Barnstormers have a bunch of guys performing below expectations. Usually, if given enough time, they’ll rebound. We’re starting to see that happen.

*Kyle Nichols drove in three runs. He has 29 RBIs in 36 games, including his time with Southern Maryland. He also played first base for the first time, which meant no catchers playing out of position.

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The bottom line:

Maybe the Barnstormers needed to hit rock bottom. They responded to their eight-error game with back-to-back wins on the road against a good team. They’ve finally won a day game. They’ve finally won a road series outside this great state. They ended a tough road trip at 3-3 and return home for a four-game series against Bridgeport. Things look a lot better than they did 48 hours ago.