When the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs returned home on Tuesday evening for the start of a week-long home stand that will end this Sunday at Regency Furniture Stadium, the local Atlantic League squad was looking to finally steer themselves in the right direction following a bumpy opening six weeks.
Southern Maryland (17-19) found the combination of the home stadium and a superb outing from starting pitcher Ian Kahaloa and a struggling foe in the Lexington Legends to be immediately beneficial. The Blue Crabs scored one run in the third, two more in the fifth and two more in the seventh to eventually forge a 5-1 victory over the Legends.
“He pitched the same way he did most of last season,” Southern Maryland Blue Crabs manager Stan Cliburn said of Kahaloa (2-4), who limited the Legends to one run and fanned 11 Legends in 7⅓ innings of work to collect the win. “He had really good tempo out there tonight. He went out and attacked the hitters and his stuff was really good tonight.”
Kahaloa escaped trouble in the top of the third and the Blue Crabs gave him a tepid lead in the home half of the pivotal frame. Lexington (10-26) leadoff batter Matt Bottchler stroked a bloop double past third but lead runner Aldenis Sanchez hesitated as he rounded second and was forced to stop at third, where he was stranded when Kahaloa fanned Gabe Howell.
Southern Maryland claimed the lead in the bottom of the third inning when shortstop Michael Wielansky slapped an opposite field triple into the right field corner that enabled Alan Alonso, who opened the inning with a walk, to score from first. Anthony Brocato then worked Legends’ starting pitcher Cristofer Mezquita for his second walk of the outing before Juan Kelly fanned to end the threat.
But Southern Maryland would chase Mezquita in the home half of the fifth as Wielansky again delivered. Ian Yetsko led off the inning with a single then stole second and Wielansky followed by delivering a hustling double into right center. Mezquita retired the next two Blue Crabs before Josh Broughton greeted reliever Jo Jo Rodriguez with a single to center that scored Wielansky to give the hosts a 3-0 lead.
Southern Maryland added two more runs in the home half of the seventh against Legends’ reliever Neraldo Catalina who simply fell apart. After retiring the first two batters he faced, Catalina walked Brocata, hit Kelly with a pitch then walked the next three Blue Crabs, including both Anthony Ray and Gabe Wurtz with the bases loaded to force in two more runs during an inning in which Southern Maryland did not have a hit.
On Tuesday afternoon the Atlantic League announced its top players for May. Long Island Ducks first baseman Frank Schwindel was named the player of the month while Staten Island FerryHawks hurler Christian Capuano was tabbed as the pitcher of the month.
Schwindel led all ALPB hitters with a .386 batting average (32-for-83) with seven home runs, 20 RBI, 19 runs scored, a .464 on-base percentage that included 13 walks and a .675 slugging percentage. He reached base safely in each of his last 17 games dating back to May 8, the longest active streak in the league.
Capuano, a right-handed starting pitcher for the FerryHawks, went 5-1 with a 2.63 earned run average in May, collecting 43 strikeouts in 37.2 innings pitched. Capuano won five straight decisions in May, two each against Long Island and Hagerstown and four of those victories actually came on the road.
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