The Lancaster Barnstormers' shrinking, ailing pitching staff got emergency treatment from Zack Parker Saturday.
Five hours of literal and figurative fireworks later, the Barnstormers wrapped up a doubleheader sweep of the Camden Riversharks at Clipper Magazine Stadium.
Parker pitched four shutout innings to propel Lancaster to a 5-1 win in game one.
That game was taut, and efficient, complete in less than two hours. Game two was not, but the Barnstormers' wrapped up their 11-5 win at about 11:46 p.m.
A crowd of 6,725 watched Lancaster end a six-game losing streak that came immediately after a seven-game winning streak.
Hard to figure?
Not really, manager Von Hayes said.
"It's easy to understand," he said. "We lost three starting pitchers in one day."
That was Monday, June 1, when Tom Cochran was signed by the Cincinnati Reds' organization, Trey Hodges was disabled-listed with back trouble and Parker couldn't go with painful finger blisters.
Add the loss of reliever Jon Huber, signed by the Atlanta Braves organization Saturday, and Hayes couldn't have relished having to get at least 14 innings pitched (AL doubleheader games are seven innings).
"I knew we had to take baby-steps with Zack," Hayes said, "but it was nice to get four shutout innings."
It was also tough to remove a guy who was working on a one-hit shutout, and ended up not even getting the win.
"[Parker] told me he was starting to feel [discomfort]," Hayes said. That was after the third. Parker told Hayes he could give him one more inning, and did.
"A lot of people might not understand taking a guy out who was pitching a shutout, but there's story behind it," Hayes said.
Parker gave way to Ross Peeples, who yielded Camden's only run, a solo homer to right in the fifth.
Other than that it was clean stuff from Peeples, Ricardo Gomez in the sixth and Ryan Cullen in the seventh. Gomez got the win. The four Lancaster hurlers allowed one hit each, and a total of one walk.
The offense: Two in the second on two walks, a sac bunt and a two-run single by Ryan Mulhern off Camden starter Dewon Brazelton, a hard thrower with control issues; two in the fifth on Aaron Herr's opposite-field homer to right, and a run in the sixth on Lloyd Turner's RBI double.
Herr has nine hits, four home runs and 14 RBI in his last 24 at-bats.
Bryan Sabatella's fifth-inning grand slam broke open game two. It was Sabatella's first homer and the Barnstormers' first grand slam of the year.
But the Barnstormers started raking long before that. Lloyd Turner led off the bottom of the first of the nightcap with a ringing triple, and scored on David Housel's single. Herr singled Housel home.
They got three in the second on hits by Mike Woods and Sabatella and the Riversharks throwing the ball around with random wildness.
Turner and Housel did it again in the fourth, Turner doubling and Housel, who isn't supposed to have power, cranking a shot far over the covered patio in right.
Huber, 27, spent most of the 2006 and 2007 seasons with the Seattle Mariners and was mostly effective (2.57 earned-run average). He's been assigned to the Braves Class AAA affiliate in Gwinnett County, Georgia, immediately outside Atlanta.
He was 1-0 with two saves and a 3.63 ERA in 18 appearances for Lancaster, all in relief. He had thrown 11.2 consecutive scoreless innings prior to Friday.
Ironically, the Braves scouted him that night, when he allowed four hits and three runs in two-thirds of an inning of a 6-3 loss to Camden.
Lancaster signed former big-league righty Eric Junge Wednesday, and he promptly threw an inning and got a loss. Hayes said he didn't think the club would have to add another pitcher in the short term.
There are 12 pitchers on the roster, not counting Hodges.
Junge gets the ball for today's final game of the series, at 1:35 p.m, at the Clip Joint, vs. Camden's Tom Davey (5-0).
Mike Gross is assistant sports editor of the Sunday News. E-mail him at mgross@lnpnews.com. 
