Cliburn, Briceno garner postseason honors with Blue Crabs

Last week the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball announced it postseason awards for teams, coaches and individual players and a pair of Southern Maryland Blue Crabs each received acknowledgement.

Despite finishing the season with a 53-72 mark, good for fourth in the South Division of the ALPB, Southern Maryland Blue Crabs manager Stan Cliburn was recognized by the league with the Special Recognition Achievement Award, while closer Endrys Briceno proved to be the only player selected to the postseason All-Star team. None of the Southern Maryland players were selected to the league's All-Defensive team.

"You know, it was a tough season right from the outset and we never really could get everything right," said Cliburn, who notched the 2,000th managing victory of his career on July 27, just four days after longtime pitcher Daryl Thompson collected his 100th career victory on the mound. "My award really has more to do with my career than anything else. We had a memorable week with Daryl gettin his 100th on a Tuesday then I got my 2,000th on that Saturday."

Although there were no repeat honorees on the ALPB postseason All-Star team, Blue Crabs' closer Endrys Briceno earned his third award as the league's top relief pitcher. Briceno, who had previously been tabbed in 2021 and 2022, finished the season with a 5-4 mark and 2.06 earned run average and led the league with 20 saves while making 44 appearances.

"Our pitching was very good," Cliburn said. Briceno led the league in saves and he's really been the best closer in the league for the past four seasons. We just didn't give our pitchers much run support. We were last or near the bottom in almost every offensive category. [Ian] Kahaloa won 10 games and Daryl led the league in innings pitched [152] and Briceno led the league in saves even though we only won 53 games."

As expected, the ALPB Champion York Revolution led the group with five players on the All-Star team, while the Lancaster Stormers had three honorees and both the Charleston Dirty Birds and Gastonia Baseball Club each had two players tabbed. Briceno joined former Blue Crabs closer Jim Ed Warren [2010, 2011 and 2013] as the only two ALPB relief pitchers to attain three first-team designations.

The Lancaster Stormers were selected for their promotional excellence, the Gastonia Baseball Club was tabbed with the promotion of the year, the Lexington Legends earned best mascot and Meritus Park, home of the Hagerstown Flying Boxcars, was chosen as the ballpark of the year., while the York Revolution was honored for its grounds operations excellence.