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AtL Southern Maryland Blue Crabs

Three Home Runs By Nettles Propel Somerset To Victory In Series Finale

September 5, 2010 - Atlantic League (AtL)
Southern Maryland Blue Crabs News Release


The Blue Crabs entered Sunday's series finale looking to salvage the weekend against the Somerset Patriots with a four-game split at home. In the latest re-match of the 2009 Atlantic League Championship Series however, Somerset took the series 3-1 with an 11-4 win at Regency Furniture Stadium in front of 5,247 fans.

Third baseman Jeff Nettles became the first visiting player at Regency Furniture Stadium to hit three home runs in a game, in a 3-for-4 afternoon with 4 RBI. The Patriots jumped out to the first lead in all four games, on a Michael Hernandez RBI single off Southern Maryland starter Brandon Mann with two out in the first, scoring the league's leading base-stealer Wayne Lydon after a leadoff single and swipe of second. The lead would last until the bottom of the third, when Shaun Cumberland tied it with his 12th home run of the season, pulled to right field off Somerset starter Jason Monti. Somerset (69-59, 33-25) would have an answer however, turning up the power in the middle innings. Jeff Nettles drilled a solo-shot to left-center in the fifth, which was followed later in the inning by a three-run bomb pulled to right by Jason Belcher, making the score 5-1. That would be all for the left-hander Mann (104 pitches, 0-1), who lasted 4.2 innings allowing five earned runs on six hits, walking four and striking out four.

The Blue Crabs (74-51, 33-22) had a chance to get back into it, but stranded three runners in the sixth after loading the bases with nobody out. The right-hander Monti (96 pitches, 5-6) would last five-plus innings, scattering five hits with the earned run on the Cumberland homer. He struck out nine, walking two. It was 6-1 after Nettles went yard for the second time of the day, bashing another solo-shot to left to lead off the seventh. Later in the inning, Iggy Suarez brought home a run with a bases-loaded sac-fly to center, putting the Patriots up by six, and the deficit grew to seven after a bases-loaded walk. Leading off the eighth, Nettles completed the hat-trick with this third homer of the game and 10th of the season on a drive to the leftfield gap, making the score 9-2. In the bottom of the eighth, the Crabs drew closer on a two-run homer to left by Jeremy Owens, but it was much too little too late in a 11-4 defeat, as Nettles tacked on his fourth RBI of the day with a sac-fly in the ninth.

The Blue Crabs return to action Tuesday evening for a doubleheader against the Newark Bears at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium beginning at 5:05 p.m. RHP Derek Blacksher (1-4, 7.51) will start game one for Newark opposite RHP Dan Reichert (15-9, 3.87) for Southern Maryland. RHP Mike Loree (5-9, 6.14) will start game two for Newark against fellow righty Connor Robertson (6-3, 3.55).

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