Sugar Land, TX – The story of the night in game six of a seven game series between the Blue Crabs and the Sugar Land Skeeters was the man on the bump for Southern Maryland. Daryl Thompson (1-0), in his eighth season in a Blue Crab uniform came into Tuesday night’s game fresh off his 100th professional win. The adrenaline from the elite feat carried him early in the ballgame, and the Blue Crabs struck first on an Edwin Garcia sacrifice fly to score Cory Vaughn in the top of the third, putting the good guys up 1-0 early.
The two teams traded hits as the game stretched on, but neither side was able to scratch across any more runs run in the middle innings. The first threat Sugar Land presented came in the bottom of the sixth when back-to-back base hits lead to runners on second and third with no outs. The veteran righty Thompson induced a pair of shallow pop outs followed by a groundout to get out of the jam unscathed, as Southern Maryland would continue to cling to their narrow lead heading into the back end of the game.
The next inning was a different story, however. After allowing zero runs in 17 1/3 straight innings dating back to last season, Thompson allowed a two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth to allow the Skeeters their first lead of the game. Southpaw Adam Choplick came in relief for his second outing in the last three nights to shutdown the Skeeters heading into the final third of the game.
In the top of the seventh, a walk and hit batsman put two on with no outs for Southern Maryland, but the Blue Crabs would come up empty in the inning. In the bottom half, the Skeeters had runners on the corners and Edwin Garcia made a web-gem play to cut off a Skeeter attempting to come home, and turned a double play on the next batter up to keep the deficit where it was.
Southern Maryland called on right hander Ryan Chaffee in the bottom of the eighth and Skeeters’ loaded the bases and scored a pair of runs on a couple of sacrifice flies, but Chaffee performed damage control to keep with scoring margin within three with a 4-1 Skeeter lead heading to the ninth. Southern Maryland came up empty in their final at-bat of the game, securing the Sugar Land’s victory of the opening series on a 4-1 Skeeters’ win. The Blue Crabs take on the Skeeters once more tomorrow in the series finale that begins at 12:05 PM.
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.