When the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs began their latest home stand on Tuesday in a rare afternoon contest necessitated by a blown transformer that was responsible for powering the lights at Regency Furniture Stadium for the scheduled night game, several of the team’s on-field deficiencies were visible in a 6-4 setback to the visiting York Revolution.
Southern Maryland (42-52 overall, 11-20 in the second half) took the lead in the bottom of the first when Reyes walked and Anthony Brocato followed with a double to left center off York starter Aaron Fletcher that scored Reyes from first. York responded with two runs in the top of the third inning against Southern Maryland starting pitcher Garrett Martin to vault the Revolution to a brief 2-1 lead, but neither starter would be in the line for the decision.
As he had done in the first inning, Brocato gave the Blue Crabs the lead for the second time on the afternoon when he belted a two-run homer to left center off Fletcher to give the hosts a 3-2 edge. Juan Kelly then followed by crushing a Fletcher offering even further over the fence in left center for a solo shot that gave the Blue Crabs a 4-2 lead through four innings.
“The last time we faced him [Fletcher] he held us to one hit in six scoreless innings,” Southern Maryland Blue Crabs manager Stan Cliburn said. “So, today we got some runs early but we left too many guys on base.”
York rallied to draw even with a run in the fifth and another in the sixth and neither starting pitcher would return to the mound thereafter. York (63-31, 20-11) got one run in the eighth against Southern Maryland reliever Jason Creasy and another in the ninth against Derek Casey, but the Revolution’s insurance run looked tenuous.
York manager Rick Forney sent closer Brett Schulze to the mound for the bottom of the ninth, but the usually reliable reliever could not get past the second batter. In professional baseball now, pitchers are required to pitch to three batters in an inning before being replaced except in case of an injury. Schulze hit one batter then walked another and was pulled early due to blisters on his right, throwing fingers.
York reliever Matt Turner fanned the first two Blue Crabs batters then walked Travis Demeritte to load the bases before he fanned Josh Broughton to end the game and record the save. Southern Maryland batters fanned 10 times and the Blue Crabs left seven runners on base, including three in the bottom of the ninth. York base runners also collected a staggering sum of eight stolen bases on Tuesday.
“Once again we had way too many strikeouts and we left too many runners on base,” said Cliburn, who collected his 2,000th career coaching win on July 27. “They also ran all over us. They even had two stolen bases when we had pitch-outs called.”
Cliburn, along with Southern Maryland pitcher Daryl Thompson, both posted career milestones this summer with the veteran hurler earning his 100th career victory on July 23.
But Tuesday’s blown transformer comes on the heels of a tragic incident in which Declan Hicks, 5, of La Plata, died as the result of injuries he sustained at an Aug. 2 game when a bounce house was sent airborne from the concourse level and landed some 15 feet below onto the field.
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