Blue Crabs coming into form

Down Lancaster twice, now on three-game win streak

It’s been a tough go for the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs thus far, but two wins to start a road trip is a step in the right direction with many more games re- maining in the first half of the Atlantic League season.

Wednesday night, the Blue Crabs won their third straight game after delivering a 5-3 win over the Lancaster Barnstormers at Clipper Magazine Stadium (Pa.) in the second game of a seven-game, six-day road trip. That coming off an 8-4 win over Lancaster to start the trip on Tuesday

The Blue Crabs was sparked by its early offense Wednesday to go with the pitching of starter Jon Leicester, who pitched seven innings with five strikeouts, yielding just one run on seven hits and did not walk any batters.

“It was beautiful to see,” said Blue Crabs manager Jeremy Owens, referring to team’s pitching, hitting and defense. “We are swinging the bats well and our pitching are throwing strikes. Jon had a solid performance tonight.”

Southern Maryland improved to just 6-13 overall entering Thursday’s series finale with Lancaster and opens up a four-game, three-day series in Long Island on Friday night that will include a doubleheader on Saturday.

The Blue Crabs took the early 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning on a threerun home run by Zach Wilson, who also had a double in the game. Wilson was combined 5 for 7 at the plate in the wins Tuesday and Wednesday.

“It was a pretty slow start to the season, but things have been picking up lately,” Wilson said. “The bats are starting to come alive and it is good to see us come into form. We have a solid group of guys.”

In the sixth, Fred Lewis drove in Eric Garcia on a sacrifice fly to put the Blue Crabs up 4-1. It was the second straight game that Lewis had a RBI on a sacrifice. The lead was pushed to 5-1 when Jamar Walton scored on a bases-loaded wild pitch.

Lancaster (7-12), which outhit the Blue Crabs 11-7 but left seven runners in scoring position, scored single runs in the bottom of the eighth and ninth, but Southern Maryland was able to hold on.

Tuesday, the Blue Crabs had solid pitching to go with timely hitting to help secure the 8-4 victory over Lancaster.

Southern Maryland, which outhit the Barnstormers 15-10 in the game, went up 3-0 after scoring three runs in the top of the third, sparked by a two-run single by Kuan-Jen Chen and a RBI sacrifice fly by Lewis.

Wilson, who was 3 for 3 at the plate in the game, singled in a run in the fifth and sixth to push the lead to 5-1.

Lancaster, came to within 5-4 with three runs in the bottom of the seventh that was capped by a single from Josh Bell, scoring Caleb Gindl. However in the eighth, the Blue Crabs added some insurance runs to help put the game away as Walton led the inning off with a solo homer, his second straight game with a long ball. A few batters later, Garcia ripped a tworun homer over the wall in right.

“We are taking it one game at a time,” Walton said. “It is great to see us starting to click offensively and defensively.”

Blue Crabs lefty starter Brian Burres picked up his first win of the season, throwing five innings with three strikeouts, giving up just one run on three hits.

Gary Brown went 2 for 4 at the plate with two runs scored in the win.