In the opener of their eight-game road trip, the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs committed a season-high four errors as they fell to the Long Island Ducks by the final count of 5-3 at Bethpage Ballpark. Four of the five runs that the Blue Crabs allowed were unearned.
Bobby Blevins (2-1) went the first eight innings for Long Island giving up three runs on ten hits for the victory. Brian Baker (0-3) surrendered all five runs for Southern Maryland (10-13) in 6.1 innings and remains winless on the season.
Each team scored a run in the 2nd inning. Johnny Bowden brought in a run grounding into a double play to give the Crabs a brief lead before Ryan Strieby tied the game in the bottom half with an RBI single.
The Ducks (11-11) took advantage of two Blue Crabs errors in the bottom of the 4th inning to take the lead. After Cody Puckett reached on an error, Keith Castillo hit an RBI double to give Long Island their first lead. A second Jared McDonald error of the inning kept the frame alive for Brendan Harris who drove in two with a double that made it 4-1.
Long Island scored their fourth unearned run of the night in the 7th when Adam Bailey’s sacrifice fly plated Lew Ford for a 5-1 lead.
C.J. Ziegler and Jose Julio-Ruiz got the Blue Crabs back within two in the top of the 8th with back-to-back solo home runs. Ziegler has three home runs in his past two games and leads the team with five home runs and 18 runs batted
