NEWARK, NJ - The Newark Bears were in complete control from start to finish in front a 6,000+ crowd as they completed their sweep of the Lancaster Barnstormers, winning this one 6-3.

The offense got on the board quickly in their first turn at bat thanks to Randall Simon’s bases-clearing double off the center field wall. It was part of a four-run first that vaulted the Bears out of the gate.

Mike Bumstead (5-4) threw five innings for the win and pitched well, but couldn’t get deep into the game. Unfortunately, he couldn’t muster up any 1-2-3 innings which elevated his pitch count, but he had the Lancaster hitters off balance during his time in the game.

“Its nice to get strikeouts,” said Bumstead. “But, I’d rather get deeper into the game, get through at least six, but the bullpen came in and did their job and we were able to get the win.”

Indeed, Bumstead struck out ten Barnstormers in his five innings of work.

“I threw quite a bit of sliders,” Bumstead said. “Probably threw too many, but I was able to get ahead with the fastball to set up the slider and it was definitely working today.”

“He was pretty solid today,” said manager Wayne Krenchicki. “He got into trouble with his pitch count, the hitters were fouling off a lot of pitches in their at-bats. We weren’t afraid to use our bullpen since they’re pretty fresh.”

It was a fairly quiet game from there on. Edwin Almonte, Cory Willey and J.J. Trujillo finished out the game with Trujillo picking up his fourth save when he came on in the ninth inning.

Newark scratched out a couple of extra runs as the game went on. Ramon Castro picked up a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning and then an RBI-single in the sixth to add some insurance to the Bears lead.

The win, coupled with a loss by the Somerset Patriots, drew them even for first place in the Freedom Division with Long Island coming to The Den for a three-game weekend series.

“Surely our goal is to win two out of three,” said Krenchicki. “We’ve got some different pitching matchups this time with Baez, who will hopefully be ready to go and Gracesqui on Saturday. I think our matchups will be better this time around.”

The Bears and Ducks square off for game one at 7:05 PM on Friday night at Riverfront Stadium.

Notes: Newark announced before the game that they’ve signed right-handed pitcher Carlos Mirabal. Mirabal was a key cog in last year’s championship team until he was sidelined with an injury in September. David Pellegrine was also traded to the Kansas City T-Bones of the Northern League to complete an earlier trade.

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