The Lancaster Barnstormers' 5-0 defeat of Somerset Saturday wasn't a real win, but it earned a real endorsement from the manager.
"Today was probably the best spring-training day I've had as a manager," Von Hayes said.
"It started with the way the guys worked in the morning, and carried over to the game."
This was the third exhibition game of what has been a rain-soaked spring training for the Barnstormers, their first in Lancaster rather than Florida.
The first game was against Elizabethtown College, with Barnstormers pitching for both sides.
The second was a wild, 8-8 tie with Somerset Friday in New Jersey.
Saturday's game was a bit more like a real one, even though Somerset used a 12-man batting order, the Barnstormers hit in the bottom of the ninth, the game already won, to get the at-bats, and a crowd of only around 500 watched at Clipper Magazine Stadium, sunning themselves leisurely on the spring's most beautiful day to date.
Lancaster played a pretty clean game. Four pitchers, led by planned opening-day starter Josh Hall, allowed just four hits walked only one batter.
The Barnstormers got solo home runs from Aaron Herr, Jason Perry and Adam Shorser, Herr's and Perry's back-to-back.
The other two runs were driven in by Ryan Mulhern, with a sacrifice fly in the middle of Somerset starter Paul Bush's walk-filled first inning, and on a seventh-inning single.
The locals had two meaningless infield throwing errors, but also turned three double plays and got a terrific tumbling catch in center field from Mike Campbell.
That's a tumbling, give-up-your-body catch with a 5-0 lead in the ninth inning of a game in which winning didn't matter, which can't be a bad thing.
The Barnstormers are one of three Atlantic League teams, with Somerset and York, that did spring training in the North this year.
Given the weather, it's possible that the other five, by training in Florida, will have an early-season advantage.
"Maybe in some ways they do," Hayes acknowledged.
"But I'm looking at it as an advantage for us that we're getting to play in our own ballpark, getting used to hitting there, working pitchers there.
"Also, our players are getting settled with their host families. And at least we're getting to play in these type games."
Also, the Barnstormers have access to the indoor B2B baseball and Softball Academy in Manheim.
"No matter what the weather is, we're going to get our work in," Hayes said.
The team seems more solidified than it did last season, Hayes' first as an independent-league manager.
The starting rotation is set with veterans Hall, Zack Parker, local kid Eric Ackerman, Jason Scobie and Trey Hodges. Parker and Ackerman are lefties.
Hayes also believes he has about five middle-of-the-order quality hitters in Herr, Mulhern, Peters, outfielder L.J. Biernbaum and infielder Danny Bravo.
Biernbaum has been away from the team the last two days to spend time with his ailing father.
Bravo, the batting champ and MVP of the United League a year ago, is one of several on the Barnstormers' roster awaiting work visas in their home country, Venezuela in Bravo's case.
The first of those to arrive, shortstop Amadeo Zazueta, is expected to arrive from Mexico today.
The roster currently has 28 players. Hayes said he expects to go into Thursday's season opener, with Newark at the Clipper Magazine Stadium, with 24.
The schedule from now until then:
Exhibition game vs. York Revolution at Clipper Magazine Stadium at 1:30 p.m. today; exhibition game with Franklin & Marshall College at 5 p.m. Monday at Clipper Magazine Stadium; exhibition game at York at 1 p.m. Tuesday; and workout at B2B from 9 a.m.-noon Wednesday.
Mike Gross is assistant sports editor of the Sunday News. E-mail him at mgross@lnpnews.com. 
