Southern Maryland Blue Crabs cap homestand

When the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs capped their recent home stand on Sunday afternoon with a lopsided victory over the visiting Lexington Legends, it marked the continuation of a roller coaster ride through the first half of the season.

On June 9, Southern Maryland (20-21) broke open the series finale with the Legends early en route to a 10-1 victory as Gabe Wurtz belted two home runs and collected five runs batted in and shortstop Aaron Hill added a pair of doubles. Blue Crabs starting pitcher Ian Kahaloa limited the Legends to one run in six innings and benefited from the ample run production.

One night earlier Lexington (13-28) jumped on Blue Crabs starter Spencer Johnston early as Legends’ leadoff batter Drew Jemison belted a solo homer to left center then three batters later Pedro Gonzalez delivered a similar blast to give the visitors a quick 2-0 lead. But the Blue Crabs immediately countered with two runs in the bottom of the first and three more in the second.

“Spencer went out there and battled,” said Southern Maryland Blue Crabs skipper Stan Cliburn, who needs 18 wins to reach the 2,000-win plateau in his managerial career following Sunday’s outing. “He attacked the zone and their guys made good contact early. He made some adjustments after that and they didn’t score on him again.”

Southern Maryland got two runs in the bottom of the first courtesy of a genuine two-out rally as Anthony Brocato walked, Juan Kelly and Josh Broughton followed with consecutive singles to load the bases then both Aaron Hill and Gabe Wurtz worked Legends’ starting pitcher Jose Acuna for consecutive walks to force in runs to bring the hosts even.

Then in the bottom of the second the Blue Crabs added three more runs on a two-out rally in which the hosts benefited from one Legends’ fielding error. Kelly singled home run one and another came around to score on a fielding miscue by Jemison in left. Later in the frame Kelly scored from third on a wild pitch to extend the Blue Crabs’ lead to 5-2.

After a very shaky start to the outing, Johnston settled down and retired the next 15 Lexington batters that he faced before yielding a two-out single to designated hitter Gavin Johns in the sixth. Blue Crabs’ skipper Stan Cliburn then hooked Johnston in favor of Cody Thompson, but Johnston eventually collected the win while allowing just two runs in 5 2/3 innings of work.

One night earlier on June 7, Lexington prevailed 5-0 as Southern Maryland veteran pitcher Daryl Thompson again got little run support while dipping to 1-7 on the season. Thompson arrived this spring needing only three wins to reach the 100-win plateau in his Atlantic League career, but the veteran hurler has struggled at times on the mound and the Blue Crabs have averaged only two runs per game during his starts.

“Daryl has pitched a lot better than his [win-loss] record indicates,” Cliburn said. “He’s really only had two or three rough outings. We just haven’t scored many runs for him. But he still leads the league in innings pitched and he could be 4-4 right now if we had scored some runs for him.”