L.I. Ducks: The Wednesday Swim; Battle of the ERA Kings

From the desk of:  THE WEBBED SPIKES NINE

NEXT

LONG ISLAND DUCKS

vs.

CAMDEN RIVERSHARKS

FROM

Underneath 

Ben Franklin Bridge Park 

Long Island Ducks: Somerset's Sean Bierman and the Flock's Mickey Jannis continue tossing gems; both lead Atlantic League with top ERA's.

After closing out the York Revolution on Tuesday, the Ducks packed their bags, locked up the Pond, and headed south to Camden, New Jersey, in preparation for Thursday's start of their 4-game week ending series against the Riversharks.

The Somerset Patriots, however, were far from idle.  On Wednesday, they increased their lead over the 2nd place Ducks to 5.5 games with a victory over the struggling, nonetheless defending Atlantic League champion Lancaster Barnstormers.

Lancaster starter Matt Packer pitched well enough to win on any other night, just not this particular night against the Patriots.  Packer lasted 7 innings, and allowed just one earned run on 5 hits and a walk, with 4 strikeouts.  He left the game on the losing side of a 1-0 game.

That's because in the bottom of the 2nd, who else but Chris Marrero led-off with a single, and soon came around to score on Robert Andino's 1-out RBI single for the game's only run.

In his last start, southpaw Sean Bierman dueled Long Island's Mickey Jannis.  Sean pitched 8 shut out innings, allowed 6 hits, walked one and fanned 4 batters, but exited to a no-decision as it took the Patriots 12 innings to gain a 1-0 victory.  Jannis pitched brilliantly as well, matching Bierman inning for inning.  He allowed no runs on just 3 hits, walked none and fanned 8 batters before likewise exiting to a no-decision.

• On Tuesday, Mickey Jannis brought the Ducks to within 5 games of the Patriots with 7.2 innings of no-hit baseball and 9 strikeouts en route to a 3-0 victory over the York Revolution.

In Wednesday's start against the Barnstormers, Somerset's Sean Bierman (indirectly) demonstrated to Long Island just how tough their quest of toppling the Patriots will be.  Bierman tossed a 3-hit, complete game shutout, while issuing just one walk.

Bierman lowered his ERA to a league leading 1.46 mark.  Mickey Jannis owns the league's 2nd best mark with a 1.55 ERA.

The Patriots 1-0 win over Lancaster stretched their lead over Long Island back to 5.5 games, with 32 first half games remaining on the schedule.




Mike