AtL Southern Maryland Blue Crabs

A Loss, But Not All Lost

Published on September 17, 2011 under Atlantic League (AtL)
Southern Maryland Blue Crabs News Release


York, PA - The York Revolution overcame a 6-0, 4th inning deficit en route to a 7-6, 10-inning win over the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs on Saturday night at Sovereign Bank Stadium in front of 7,026 fans. On the bright side, Bridgeport lost to Long Island 4-1, which keeps the Blue Crabs 1.5 games out of the wild card and guarantees Southern Maryland of playing the Camden Riversharks in a make-up doubleheader at Regency Furniture Stadium on Monday at 4:00pm.

The Blue Crabs got the ball rolling early as they plated the game's first six runs. In the second, the Blue Crabs loaded the bases with no one out before getting an RBI single from centerfielder Jeremy Owens, a sac-fly by shortstop Tanner Townsend, and a passed ball by Revolution catcher Octavio Martinez, which scored leftfielder Ben Harrison from third and gave the Blue Crabs a 3-0 lead.

They extended their lead in the third on a solo-homerun by third-baseman Travis Garcia (18) to push the score to 4-0. In the fourth, the Blue Crabs plated two more runs on RBI singles from right fielder Adam Godwin and second-baseman David Espinosa to give Southern Maryland a 6-0 lead. However, with the bases loaded and one out, the Blue Crabs couldn't muster any more runs in the inning and left the bases full.

Entering the bottom of the fourth, Blue Crabs starting pitcher Ben Moore had been solid as he retired nine of the first 10 hitters he faced and struck out five.

However, Moore lost complete control as he walked the first three men he faced in the inning, before allowing RBI singles to first-baseman Chris Nowak, right fielder Bryant Nelson, and third-baseman Vince Harrison to cut the Southern Maryland lead to 6-3.

With the bases loaded and no one out, Moore then hit second-baseman Liu Rodriguez with a two-strike pitch to force in another run and make the score 6-4. The hit- batsmen forced Moore from the game and reliever Charlie Manning entered. Manning did allow an RBI single to centerfielder Scott Grimes later in the inning, to make the score 6-5, before he retired the final two hitters to get out of the inning.

In the sixth, Manning walked Harrison then fired and errant pickoff attempt to first, which pushed Harrison to second with one away. Manning was relieved in favor of Steve Palazzolo who promptly allowed an RBI double to catcher Octavio Martinez to tie the game at six.

Following that double, however, Palazzolo would retire the next 11 men he faced to take the Blue Crabs through the ninth inning.

Meanwhile, the Southern Maryland offense shut down for the evening as they could only muster one hit over the game's final six innings. The Blue Crabs had runners at first and third with one out in the seventh, but couldn't push the lead run across. They also had a runner at second with two out in the 10th, before a hard hit fly- ball by shortstop Tanner Townsend was caught on the warning track by Grimes to end the frame.

York finally scored the winning run in the 10th. Palazzolo started the inning for the Blue Crabs and allowed singles to shortstop Ramon Castro and designated hitter Jose Herrera to begin the inning. Palazzolo was lifted for Jim Ed Warden who got two strikes on Nowak before hitting him with a pitch. That loaded the bases with no one out.

That's when Nelson stepped in and hit the game-winning sacrifice fly to right to end the ballgame, 7-6 in 10 innings. Southern Maryland fell to 4-7 in extra-inning games on the season.

Owens led the way offensively for the Blue Crabs as he finished the game 3-5 with two singles, a double, an RBI, and a run scored. Garcia aided the Southern Maryland cause with a 2-4 effort, including a homer, single, and two runs scored.

A cause for concern, offensively, for the Blue Crabs is the amount of strikeouts. Southern Maryland struck out 16 times in the contest, giving them 43 strikeouts over the last three games.

Despite winning the game, the Revolution had no one with more than one hit.

Getting the win for York was reliever R.J. Rodriguez (3-3) who allowed one hit and struck out two in 1.2 innings. Despite the tremendous effort, Palazzolo (9-5) suffered the loss for Southern Maryland after giving up one run on three hits in 3.2 innings. He walked none and struck out three.

The Blue Crabs will finish their three-game series with the Revolution on Sunday at 1:00. Southern Maryland will send right-hander Nick Green (10-6, 3.88 ERA) to the hill against southpaw Jino Gonzalez (1-1, 6.19 ERA) for the Revolution. The game can be heard on www.somdbluecrabs.com.

Check out the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs Statistics

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Atlantic League Stories from September 17, 2011


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