(New Britain, CT., Aug. 17, 2017) – The Southern Maryland Blue Crabs (15-24) took the series finale against the New Britain Bees (15-23) 11-5, with the help of five homeruns in the game.
Southern Maryland jumped on the Bees early, putting up two runs in the first. Tucker Nathans opened the scoring with a solo homerun, his second in two days. L.J. Hoes followed with a single, moving up to second on the second out of the inning. Devon Rodriguez came through with a two-out single, scoring Hoes from second to extend the lead to 2-0.
The Bees responded with a big inning in the bottom of the first, batting around in the inning. Drew Hayes (7-6) issued a walk to Michael Crouse with one out, with Crouse stealing second during a strikeout to Jovan Rosa. The two-out rally began with a single from Craig Maddox, scoring Crouse from second. Back-to-back singles followed, loading the bases for Jamar Walton. Walton reached on an infield single, scoring Maddox to tie the game. Two walks bases-loaded walks followed, scoring a pair to put the Bees ahead 4-2 after the first.
The Blue Crabs fought back, putting up a run in the top of the second. Patrick Palmeiro and Zach Cone went back-to-back with doubles to start the second, putting men on second and third with nobody out. Cone came around to score on an Edwin Garcia single two batters later, before a hit-by-pitch of Nathans loaded the bases with two outs. Mike Lee was able to escape the trouble though, stranding all three runners on a fielder’s choice.
The Bees added another run in the second, with Crouse leading the way once again. He led off with a single, stealing second again to advance to scoring position. He then advanced to third on a groundout from Rosa, setting up a sacrifice fly from Maddox to make the score 5-3.
A solo shot from Rodriguez cut the deficit to one, before the pitching finally settled down for two scoreless innings in the fourth and fifth. The Blue Crabs fought back once again, retaking the lead in the sixth. Ryan Wiggins was hit by a pitch from Mike Hepple (2-1) to start the inning, with Garcia walking behind him. Two batters later, after a pitching change, L.J. Hoes clubbed his second homerun of the season, a three-run blast to give the Blue Crabs a 7-5 lead.
A solo shot from Palmeiro added one to the lead in the top of the seventh, before New Britain threatened in the bottom half. Rosa doubled as the leadoff man in the inning, going up to third on a single from Maddox. With runners on the corners and no outs, Jesse Beal struck out two of the next three batters, getting a lineout to third in the middle, stranding both runners on base.
The offense wasn’t done quite yet, as Southern Maryland scored two more in the eighth. Garcia singled to get the inning going, stealing second to get to scoring position. Garcia same around to score on a single from Hoes, with Hoes getting thrown out trying to advance to second. Michael Snyder pitched in a solo homerun, putting the lead at 10-5 for the Blue Crabs.
The Blue Crabs added three more in the ninth inning, extending the lead to eight runs. Cory Vaughn doubled to start, with a Zach Cone single and Palmeiro walk loading the bases behind him. A sacrifice fly from Garcia scored Vaughn, before a Nathans double emptied the bases to move the score to 13-5. Sam Runion worked a scoreless bottom of the ninth to finish off the win and the series win.
The Blue Crabs return to action Friday, August 18th back at home for a matchup of First-Half Champions, as they host the Somerset Patriots. Southern Maryland will send RHP Eric Fornataro (0-3, 6.50) to the mound, looking to extend the winning streak to three games. First pitch in the game scheduled for 6:35 P.M. on Friday at Regency Furniture Stadium.
For more information on the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, or to reserve your seat today for any of the Blue Crabs upcoming home games, please visit our website at somdbluecrabs.com or call us at 301-638-9788.