LANCASTER, Pa. — Damian Rolls crouched down outside the entrance to the Bridgeport Bluefish clubhouse and put his head in his hands Sunday night. No matter what level a player is competing at, the pain of defeat is never easy to digest.

The Bluefish entered the Atlantic League championship series believing they were the best team, like they had proven over the course of the regular season. It took them only three games in the most important series of the season to realize they weren't.

Plagued by poor starting pitching for the third straight day, the Bluefish suffered a season-ending 5-2 loss to the Lancaster Barnstormers in Game 3 before 6,558 at Clipper Magazine Stadium.

"It definitely hurts," Rolls said. "You see me now. I feel like I let my comrades down and I'm sure they feel the same way. At any level it hurts just as much. They came out and just jumped on us. They didn't let us breathe."

The Bluefish have been swept in the championship series in two straight appearances (Newark 2002) and are 1-3 all-time in four appearances in the series. They won their lone championship in 1999.

The Barnstormers, who won the championship in their second season, became the first team in league history to finish the postseason undefeated. Jeremy Todd was unanimously voted the series Most Valuable Player, hitting .467 (7-for-15) with two doubles, two home runs, seven RBIs and seven runs scored.

Todd was 2-for-4 with a double

Advertisement
and a home run, two RBIs and two runs scored in the clincher.

"They played so well," Bluefish right-hander T.J. Mathews said. "Defense. Starting pitching. Their bullpen. Their hitters. They played really well. They flat-out outplayed us."

Starting pitchers Brian Boehringer, Mike Porzio and Mathews were a combined 0-2 with a 25.59 ERA in only 6 innings. Boehringer didn't get an out in the third inning in Game 1. Porzio didn't make it out of the second inning in Game 2. Mathews was pulled after only 2 innings Sunday.

The Barnstormers scored a run in the first inning on an RBI single by Jose Ortiz. They added four in the third on back-to-back solo homers by Lance Burkhart and Reggie Taylor, and a two-run home run by Todd to take a 5-0 lead.

"From the starting pitching standpoint, we just didn't get it done," Mathews said. "That's the bottom line. You get down the first game. You get down the second game. You get down the third game. It was a tough hill to climb. And we tried. Nobody quit. It was just a little too much of a hole to come out of."

The Bluefish scored their only runs on solo homers by Willis Otanez and Steve Hine in the fourth.

Right-hander Denny Harriger, who set a league record with 17 wins during the regular season, pitched a complete-game, eight hitter.

Otanez, P.J. Rose and Norm Hutchins added two hits apiece.

"They were hot," Bluefish manager Dave LaPoint said. "They had some just tremendously hot hitters. They got the lead in every game. There was nothing we could do. It seemed like Lancaster was a team of destiny this year and they were going to win it."