Blue Crabs fall short twice to Somerset
After back-to-back losses to Somerset, La Plata grad Thompson helps team snap four-game losing streak
Down by a 5-0 deficit through five innings, the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs responded with four unanswered runs, two each in the bottom of the sixth and eighth, to come to within one run Wednesday night at Regency Furniture Stadium in Waldorf.
While holding Somerset scoreless in the top of the ninth, the Blue Crabs offense had one final at-bat in the bottom of the frame.
D’Arby Myers led off the inning with a single to center field, but the last three batters were retired, the last being on Zach Wilson grounder back to Somerset closer Jon Hunton, who threw it over to first base for the game’s final out as the Patriots held off the Blue Crabs late rally for the 5-4 win and take the first two games of a three-game series that ended Thursday afternoon.
Hunton, the 6-foot-9 lefthander, picked up his ninth save of the season and is the Atlantic League’s all-time career leader in saves with 137, which was previously held by former Blue Crab Jim Ed Warden.
“We kept fighting when we were down and guys didn’t stop playing,” Blue Crabs manager Jeremy Owens said. “Somerset just had some good at-bats, but I’m not going to lose sleep over this game. We gave ourselves a chance in the bottom of the ninth with the game-winning run at the plate, we just fell short.”
Southern Maryland (14-26 overall), which is in last place in the Freedom Division, 11 games behind first-place York, snapped a four-game losing streak Thursday afternoon in a 4-0 win over the Patriots with 2003 La Plata High School graduate Daryl Thompson picking up his first win of the season after going seven innings of shutout ball. Jamar Walton’s RBI double in the fourth and Wilson’s three-run homer in the eighth provided See CRABS Page B3