Tuesday evening when the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs opened their current home stand against the visiting Hagerstown Boxcars at Regency Furniture Stadium, longtime veteran ace hurler Daryl Thompson went to the mound looking for the elusive 100th win of his Atlantic League career during a season in which wins, uncharacteristically, have been difficult to attain.
In recent years, Southern Maryland (37-41) has been among the elite teams in the Atlantic League and on the doorsteps of its first championship. But this season the Blue Crabs, including Thompson (3-11), have struggled at times and Tuesday offered the local squad and its veteran hurler a chance to put the past behind them.
Tuesday evening before light to moderate rains arrived for the latter portion of the contest, Southern Maryland scored four runs early and cruised to a 7-1 victory over the visiting Hagerstown Boxcars. Thompson finally collected the 100th win in the 250th game of his Atlantic League career, one in which he has been named the league’s top pitcher three times in the previous four seasons.
“I try not to focus on all the personal accolades,” Thompson said. “Because all this means really is that I’ve been pitching in this league for a long time. But it all started with the guys getting those four runs for me in the bottom of the first inning. Then when I went out there for the second inning I felt relaxed and I felt like I could just attack the zone.”
In many of Thompson’s previous starts, the Blue Crabs had hardly provided him with a winning formula. They often failed to score more than a pair of runs and Thompson, who leads the Atlantic League in innings pitched despite his losing record, had been hindered by the combination of defensive miscues and home runs, rarely pitched with the lead.
But Tuesday evening after Thompson retired the Boxcars in order in the top of the first, Southern Maryland finally gave their veteran hurler some early run support. The Blue Crabs scored four runs on four hits and one costly Hagerstown error which eventually deemed all four runs unearned, with Juan Kelly plating one run with a single then Michael Baca added a two-run double.
Hagerstown (23-55) countered with a run in the top of the second on a solo homer from Luis Diaz, who had also homered off Thompson when the teams met on July 11. But the Blue Crabs answered in the home half of the inning when Josh Broughton doubled, went to third on a wild pitch then scored on a sacrifice fly by Michael Wielansky to extend the lead to 5-1.
Southern Maryland added two more runs in the home half of the fifth without getting a hit as the Blue Crabs benefited from four walks, a hit batter and a wild pitch to forge a 7-1 lead. Thompson escaped trouble in the top of the seventh despite yielding two hits as Southern Maryland’s defense denied the Boxcars a run on a stellar relay that started with Josh Broughton in center and ended with catcher Isaias Quioz applying a tag at the plate.
Thompson attained the 100th win of his career on the night that manager Stan Cliburn got within one victory of 2,000 as a coach at all levels. Cliburn, who spent the 1980 season as a catcher with the California Angels, admitted he was glad that Thompson was able to celebrate his milestone without having to share it with his longtime skipper.
“I really was happy for Daryl that he got his 100th win tonight and it didn’t land on the same night that I got my 2,000th,” Cliburn said. “Daryl was just tremendous tonight. Getting those four runs in the first really helped him relax and settle in. After that he attacked the strike zone and threw strikes on 68 of 84 pitches, only 16 balls, in seven innings.”
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