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AtL Southern Maryland Blue Crabs

Craig Stem Throws a Gem en Route to a Blue Crabs Series Finale Victory

May 1, 2019 - Atlantic League (AtL)
Southern Maryland Blue Crabs News Release


Sugar Land, TX. - It's been a strange beginning to the Blue Crabs' 2019 campaign with seven games in Sugar Land, Texas against the Skeeters in as many days, but nonetheless Southern Maryland had the stage set to secure a game seven win before heading home. Craig Stem (0-0) started the game on the mound for the Blue Crabs looking to mirror his performance from his season debut when he tossed six scoreless innings. He got off to the right start on Wednesday afternoon, and the Skeeters starter, Konner Wade did the same, showing shades of a pitcher's duel in the early going.

As has been the case in many of the games in this series, the scoring got started today in the middle innings. In the top of the fourth, Blue Crabs' designated hitter Craig Maddox singled up the middle, and Cory Vaughn reached base on an error to put runners on the corners with two outs. For the second game in a row, the ninth batter in the lineup got it done as Edwin Garcia singled, scoring Maddox and giving the squad the first run of the game.

Stem continued with a vengeance in the pitcher's duel, allowing just one hit through four innings of work. He did, however run into some trouble due to a pair of walks in the bottom of the fifth with just one out. The crafty right-hander managed to work out of the jam scoreless and continued holding on to his one hit outing as Southern Maryland clung to a narrow 1-0 lead.

The lead became slightly more comfortable in the top of the sixth inning when Maddox roped a line drive into the left-center alley allowing Frank Martinez to score all the way from first base, putting the Blue Crabs up 2-0. This was a seemingly monstrous lead in a game in which offense was hard to come by. After tacking on one more in the sixth, the lead got that much bigger in the eighth when in a surprising move, the Skeeters' first baseman, and longtime Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman came into pitch. The Blue Crabs' Cory Vaughn made Sugar Land pay for testing out Loney's pitching prowess with a towering home run to left field to put the Southern Maryland ahead 4-0.

Stem put together a masterpiece on the mound, allowing just one hit to the defending champs through eight innings, making it 14 straight scoreless innings to kick off the 2019 season. El'Hajj Muhammad came into polish off a series finale victory and got the job done, as the Blue Crabs held the Skeeters to a single base hit throughout the course of the game on route to a 4-0 victory.

The Blue Crabs' home opener is May 3rd against the Lancaster Barnstormers. To save your seat at the ballpark for the upcoming season and other team news, visit www.somdbluecrabs.com or call 301-638-9788.

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