Red Men find bats in time for win

If at first you don’t succeed ... just wait until the second time through the lineup.

The Red Men followed that axiom Saturday afternoon in their West Chester Adult Baseball League matchup with the Barnstormers.

Barnstormer starting pitcher Mark Dixon bedeviled the Red Men for the first four innings, allowing just one hit through the first four frames, with an assortment of offspeed pitches and good location of his fastball.

But, the second time through, the hot Red Men lineup proved fatal for the Barnstormers. In the fifth inning, the Red Men sent 10 batters to the plate and took control the game, scoring five runs on six hits, the big one being a long two-run double by Widener University star Matt Samson to give the Red Men a 5-1 win at Hoopes Park.

“I hit a fastball on the outside part of the plate,” Samson said. “The bases were loaded so I was not trying to do too much with the pitch. I was just looking to get a fastball and I got it and hit it on the screws. We had trouble with him the first time through because we don’t see many pitchers throw in the 70s and our timing was a little off. It took us a while to get his speed down and then we did some damage in the inning.”

The Barnstormers (3-10) held a 1-0 lead after a scoring a single run in the first inning off Red Men (7-7) starter Owen Hovick. But, the bottom of the fifth was all Red Men and that rally turned the tide of the game.

Cole Chesnet led off the inning with a single to center field and Cam Baughman followed with a single of his own to put men on first and second with no one out. Dan Newton then laid down a perfect bunt for a base hit and the Red Men had the bases loaded with no outs. Newton’s bunt died in the grass up the third base line and the

Barnstormers had no play.

Dixon then retired Joe Pelosu with a short fly to left for the first out. Joe Hurley came through with a single to left to tie the game at 1-1 and he set up Samson for his long two-run double to left to give his team a 3-1 advantage. The Red Men scored two more runs in the deciding frame on a sharp two-run single by Hunter Hall for the 5-1 lead.

“That has been pretty much the story for us this season,” Red Men manager Charlie Cooper said. “We don’t do much first time through, then we get our timing down and start hitting the baseball.”

Hovick went three innings for the Red Men, allowing just one run. The final four frames were split by Brooks Rush and Sean Gowen, who allowed the Barnstormers just two hits in those four innings, and the Red Men had a 5-1 win, their third in a row and fifth their last seven games.

“We have been playing real good baseball and we had some guys missing today but the other guys stepped up for us.” Cooper said.