The Blue Crabs dropped their fifth in six games on Saturday Sept. 5, at home, losing by an 11-4 final to the Somerset Patriots in the middle game of a three game series. The loss was the fourth in a row for Southern Maryland, a season high.
With the win, the Patriots improve to 76-48 on the season, and now have a two and a half game lead over the Blue Crabs at 73-50 for the best overall record in the Atlantic League.
Somerset gave right-handed starter Jim Magrane much more run support than he would need, and jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first on a Jeff Nettles two-run homer to left field, his 12th of the season. The Patriots would lead start to finish, adding a Mike Rodriguez RBI double and a Nettles sac-fly in the third to increase their lead to 4-1.
Southern Maryland tallied their first run in the bottom of the first on back to back doubles by James Shanks and Patrick Osborn, with Osborn collecting the RBI. Somerset extended their lead to 7-1 in the seventh, with a two-run single from Nettles, and an RBI single from Jason Belcher. Nettles ended the night 2 for 4, with five runs batted in.
The Blue Crabs then rallied to make it interesting in the home half of the eighth, plating three runs highlighted by a leadoff triple to the right field gap from Osborn, followed by a run-scoring single from Michael Tucker, and an RBI double that scored Tucker by Ken Harvey. With the Pats lead at 7-4 that would round out the night’s scoring for the Blue Crabs, and the Patriots put the game out of reach with four more runs in the ninth.
Magrane, the Atlantic League wins and ERA leader, improved to a stellar 14-4 with the victory. He tossed seven strong innings, allowing just five hits, one run that was earned, with three walks and eight strikeouts. Somerset chased Southern Maryland starter Randy Keisler after just three innings, in which he allowed three hits, four runs all earned, with two walks and three strikeouts. The veteran of parts of six Major League seasons dropped to 1-2 on the season in five starts, and the Blue Crabs are 2-3 in those starts.