#calledup kicked off today with our first of five games this week: Williamsport Crosscutters (Class A Short Season Phillies) vs. Auburn Doubledays (Class A Short Season Nationals). The Crosscutters play at Historic Bowman Field, a 4,200 capacity stadium in Williamsport, Pa. and it was the first Class A Short Season game I’ve seen since Jason and I watched the Vermont Lake Monsters take on the Lowell Spinners back in the summer of 2011. At 140 miles from our home base of Easton, Pa., the Crosscutters are the farthest away of the Phillies affiliates we’ll be visiting this week.

It was a great game — there were about 2,000 people in attendance and they were loud. The stadium is just as small as we imagined, with much of the crowd sitting on metal bleachers. They put those to good use with thunderous rumbles of enthusiasm for the home team; the fans were much louder than those I saw at the more subdued Syracuse Chiefs game on the road to #calledup.

The staff did a solid job with the between inning entertainment; lots of mini games like fake sumo wrestling and oversized tricycle races. Bowman Field,  which is third oldest ballpark in minor league baseball, has a great Bull Durham feel to it.

We were also interviewed by Lumber and Hide, the “official unofficial” blog of the Crosscutters; no word on when that will be online.

The Crosscutters beat Auburn 3-1, making the #calledup road trip 1-0.