LEXINGTON, Ky. — After winning 12 consecutive games, a win streak 33% longer than any other in franchise history, the Blue Crabs fell at the hands of the Kentucky Wild Health Genomes on Saturday evening.
The Crabs were able to keep the Genomes at bay in the early going despite a boatload of baserunners, but eventually lost by a score of 7-2. The Crabs loss was the team’s first since Opening Day, with their win streak spanning 15 days.
McKenzie Mills got the start for the Blue Crabs, and after working out of jams in each of the first two innings, the game’s first run scored on a Moises Sierra RBI single. The Genomes added another run in the third inning on a Carlos Castro ground-rule double.
The Crabs responded with a run of their own in the fourth inning, when Alex Crosby drove in his 13th RBI of the season. In the bottom of the fourth, the Genomes threatened to score again, with runners on second and third and one out, Jimmy Paredes came to the dish, lofting a fly ball to Braxton Lee in right field.
Lee caught the pop-up, and gunned down Carlos Castro at home to keep the score at 2-1, with the Genomes still leading. Lee had a mammoth game, poking a pair of doubles while canning a quartet of runners, including two at the plate.
Rubi Silva knotted the game at 2-2 in the fifth inning when he belted an RBI triple, scoring what would be the final Blue Crabs run of the game. In the bottom of the sixth inning, Jimmy Paredes broke the game open, clearing the bases with a double down the left field line, giving the Genomes a 5-2 lead.
Wild Health added another pair in the seventh inning, running the tally to a 7-2 Genomes advantage, a score that would hold through the end of the contest.
Despite the Crabs loss, the team is still holds a 12-2 record, the best start to a season in franchise history. Additionally, just 14 games into the 2022 campaign, Southern Maryland is comfortably in first place, six games ahead of the Long Island Ducks.
The Blue Crabs will send Daryl Thompson to the mound for Sunday’s rubber match, with a 2:05 PM first pitch.