Southern Maryland looked to take control of the series Saturday night against Lancaster after beating the Barnstormers in the opener the night before. It didn’t take long for the Blue Crabs to take the lead. After giving up a run in the top of the first, Liu Rodriguez scored on a wild throw by Jed Morris in attempt to catch Richard Giannotti stealing second. A few batters later, Michael Tucker hit a two-run home run down the left-field line to give the Crabs an early 3-1 lead.

After Lancaster tied the game with runs in the third and fourth innings, the Blue Crabs had a chance to blow the game open with the bases loaded and only one out in the bottom of the fourth. However, only one run could be scored on a Chuck Jeroloman walk. Stranding runners became a major problem for the Blue Crabs that proved costly in the end.

In the sixth inning, Lancaster loaded the bases with two outs and scored twice. But in the eighth inning, the Blue Crabs worked back into the game when Michael Tucker hit a double off the top of the big green wall in left field that scored James Shanks from first base and tied the game at five, eventually forcing extra innings. In the tenth, the Blue Crabs loaded the bases, but once again failed to score, stranding three more runners. In the bottom of the 12th inning, with Lancaster leading by one, Tucker came through again, tying the game with an RBI single. However, Ryan Mulhern had the run that made the difference.

In the 13th inning, Mulhern put Lancaster up for good with a home run on Jason LaVorgna and gave the Barnstormers a 7-6 win. Antonio Alfonseca (1-3) picked up the win after blowing the save. LaVorgna (0-1) got the loss. The rubber match of the series will be on Sunday when the Blue Crabs (13-9) send Keith Ramsey (2-1, 5.04) to the mound against Lancaster (10-13) starter Eric Ackerman (3-9, 3.93). The game is scheduled to start at 2:05 p.m.

                    Barnstormers at Blue Crabs
          Aug 01, 2009 at Waldorf, MD (Regency Furn Stadium)

Barnstormers 7 (10-13)               Blue Crabs 6 (13-9)

                  AB  R  H RBI                         AB  R  H RBI

Turner,L 2b        4  0  1  1        Rodriguez,L ss     7  1  1  0
Machado,A ss       4  1  2  2        Giannotti,R rf     2  1  0  0
Watson,M dh        6  0  1  1        Burkhart,L c       4  0  0  0
Woods,M cf         5  1  1  0        Osborn,P dh        5  0  2  0
Herr,A 3b          5  0  0  0        Ramistella,J pr/dh 1  1  1  0
Mulhern,R rf/1b    7  2  2  1        Shanks,J lf        6  2  3