Waldorf, MD – July 17, 2019 – The Blue Crabs are the hottest team in the Atlantic League. After tonight’s win over the New Britain Bees, they’ve strung seven straight wins together. The squad is atop the Freedom Division in the second half with a 4-0 mark. Tonight’s 3-2 win came thanks to some early runs, and an incredible showing for the Southern Maryland bullpen.
Joe Benson, the Blue Crabs left fielder, didn’t give New Britain a chance to get on top early. Benson turned on a Rainy Lara (L, 5-6) 0-1 offering and sent a frozen rope line drive over the left field fence, as the Blue Crabs pulled away to an early 1-0 lead.
New Britain swung the balance in their favor in the bottom of the second inning. The Bees catcher, Logan Moore started their offensive attack with a double, scoring Jonathan Galvez. New Britain kept it going with the speedster, Darren Ford, when a push bunt single brought home another Bee, making the score 2-1 in favor of New Britain.
Tommy Thorpe (W, 2-2) took over the pitching duties for Southern Maryland in the third inning and proved the nickname, “Tommy Terrific”. Tommy was in fact terrific, he pitched nearly four phenomenal innings, silencing the Bees’ bats and giving way to the Blue Crabs offense. Edwin Garcia, the Blue Crabs shortstop tied the ballgame up in the top of the fifth inning on an RBI single to score Jon Griffin.
The Blue Crabs tacked on another run in the next inning. Tony Thomas led the sixth inning off with a double off of the left field wall, and Charlie Valerio moved him to third in the next at-bat. Rubi Silva came up next and continued the small ball. Silva came up with the New Britain infield in on the grass, attempting to preserve the tie game, and Rubi grounded to the Bees first baseman Bijan Rademacher. Thomas sprinted home on contact, and his incredible speed scored the game’s deciding run despite the Bees’ efforts.
The next offensive threat posed by New Britain came in the bottom of the eighth inning. The Blue Crabs reliever, James Dykstra proved cold-blooded as he would strand the tying run at third base on a strikeout swinging. The next inning was not as threatening, Southern Maryland’s faithful closer, Mat Latos (S, 10) came to the bump and shut the door on the Bees. He did allow a leadoff hit, but induced a double play ball on the next man up. Latos has now allowed just two hits and one walk in his last 16.1 innings pitched, and is ten for ten in save opportunities on the season. The Blue Crabs won their seventh straight contest this evening by a final score of 3-2.
The Blue Crabs will return home Friday July 19th, for game one of a three game set against the Sugar Land Skeeters, with a 6:35 p.m. first pitch.
Catch all Blue Crabs home games on the Blue Crabs Broadcast Network, live-streamed on YouTube (@SOMDBlueCrabs) and on Facebook (@SOMDBlueCrabs).