Bridgeport Returns the Favor

After the Blue Crabs swept Bridgeport in the last series the Bluefish return the favor by sweeping us in 3 games. This loss marks the longest losing streak of the season for the Blue Crabs at 3. Our demise came in the 5th inning when the Bridgeport Bluefish scored 7 runs and saw 11 batters come to the plate.

Again our offense was less then impressive, as despite getting every starter safely on base we were only able to score 7 runs. We hit into two inning-ending double plays, and struck out six times. Today however we were hitting well enough to get Bridgeport to call on their bullpen. Their starter today was former Blue Crab Dan Reichert who was picked up from the Blue Crabs last season early by the majors. I believe we are trying too hard to get that perfect hit to impress the home crowd. We can't seem to make the timely hits or avoid hitting it so high that the outfield can't track it. The new jerseys that we wore today seemed to keep the boys cool however there seemed to be less energy then usual from the team. Patrick Osborn again played DH and Octavio Martinez played first but was pinch-hit for in the 9th by usual first baseman Eric Crozier, while recent acquisition John Ramistella led off and played in right field. John was 0-3 on the day with 2 runs scored on 2 walks. Short Stop Travis Garcia had an impressive day going 3-5 with a run scored. He had 3 singles in his first three at bats as pictured below.



Defensively we played well save for the fifth inning where everything seemed to fall apart. Through 45 at bats we had only one strike out. The other 26 outs were split between groundouts and fly outs; we didn't turn a single double play. Starter Kenny Baugh went 4 and 1/3 innings and didn't run into trouble until the 5th. Matt Schweitzer pitched in what may have been his longest outing of the season so far, at 3 and 2/3 innings. He gave up one run on two hits in the 5th and then had back to back to back 1-2-3 innings in the 6th, 7th and 8th. Closer Jim Ed Warden came in to pitch in the 9th although he appeared to be having an off day walking the first two batters, giving up a hit and surrendering a run.

In other Blue Crabs News: With the loss we drop to 21-14 yet remain in first place a mere 2.5 games ahead of Long Island, 3 games ahead of Camden and 7 games ahead of Bridgeport. Tomorrow evening starts a 4 game series against the York Revolution who are at a league worst 10-24. The last series against York the Blue Crabs won the series 2 games to 1. Today was approximately the halfway point of the first half of the season. With about 35 games left to go it is much to early to call a playoff bid in either division though the Blue Crabs will most certainly have to step up in order to maintain their first place status. The All Star game is scheduled for the 23rd of June and hopefully the Blue Crabs will be able to get some players in the game for the second season in a row.

Friendly Confines not so Friendly

Tonight the Blue Crabs dropped their second in a row to the Bridgeport Bluefish. This was their first loss at home after scoring first and ties their current record for consecutive home losses. The last time the Blue Crabs lost back to back games at home was the 8th & 9th of May against the Newark Bears. The Blue Crabs have yet to lose more then two games consecutively.

Tonight's starter Kenny Rayborn pitched 6 innings surrendering 7 hits, giving up 3 runs at least 2 of which were earned, striking out 5 batters and walking 3. Tonight was his first loss of the season. Mike James came in to pitch the 7th and 8th innings giving up one run on two hits, and one strike out. Jimmy Serrano finished the game off in the 9th. He broke his streak of 1-2-3 innings, surrendering 3 singles, which resulted in one run and struck out one batter.

Offensively we were slightly better then last night, getting two runs on 7 hits. The two runs were scored by Richard Giannotti and Patrick Osborn. Giannotti scored in the first on an RBI fielder’s choice by Eric Crozier after Eric ran hard to beat out the potential double play. Patrick's run was brought in on a throwing error. The Bridgeport Bluefish left their pitcher Gary Knotts in for their second complete game win as the Blue Crabs were again unable to string hits together in a fashion that would required a fresh arm.

Giannotti's Leadoff single.

In other Blue Crabs News: Patrick Osborn was back in the line up today after being activated from the disabled list. He was tonight's designated hitter and went 1 for 4 with a run scored. Also seen tonight was last years right fielder John Ramistella. He was wearing number 26 and could start as soon as tomorrow. Hopefully if he does start tomorrow he will be able to get us out of this slump. The Blue Crabs look to prevent the sweep with a win tomorrow. Despite losing tonight the Blue Crabs remain in first place 3.5 games ahead of Long Island, 4 games ahead of Camden and 8 games ahead of Bridgeport.

He's back!

John Ramistella is back folks! Although not in action tonight he was back in a Blue Crabs uniform and at the game tonight.

Bats go Silent upon Return

If only we could take some of those runs from Tuesday’s game for tonight. Despite amassing at least one more hit then the Bridgeport Bluefish we were unable to string them together in a fashion that would produce runs. Bridgeport pitcher Esteban Yan pitched the complete game shutout, his first of both this season.

Tonight's pitching was interesting as Edward Rodriguez who is normally a relief pitcher started the game, going two scoreless innings giving up two hits and striking one guy out. In the third would come traditional starter and knuckleballer Joe Gannon who would pitch into the 8th after walking two batters, got the next two out on a fly out and a strikeout. Joe then walked the bases loaded and gave up a single. Unfortunately all 3 runs that the Bluefish scored would be charged to Joe and all 3 would be earned. Relief pitcher Matt Hensley would come in to pitch in the 8th, giving up a single and striking out the last batter of the lineup. Matt would again come in to pitch in the 9th getting the first two batters to ground out and striking out the last.

Offensively there isn't much to say. Although everyone was able to safely reach base at least once we were unable to bring anyone home. Octavio Martinez came into play for Lance Burkhart after he was pinch run for in the 7th.


In other Blue Crabs News: Despite the on air host announcing that John Ramistella would be back tonight I did not see him at the game and he was not in the line up. Also not in the line up was third baseman Patrick Osborn, who appeared in good spirits tonight. Our newest pitcher Matt DeSalvo was also our first player to be picked up by a major league team. Yesterday it was announced that the Tampa Bay Devil Rays purchased his contract and that he will be reporting to their AAA club in Durham.

Hopefully tomorrow night's performance will be better then tonight’s performance. With drier weather called for tonight hopefully the bats of the Blue Crabs will be louder then they were tonight.

Breaking out the Brooms again!

A slow offensive beginning on both sides made this a pitcher's duel until the 5th when the Blue Crabs would take a one run lead scored by Travis Garcia on a Chuck Jeroloman RBI single. Travis singled and was moved to second on a Jeremy Owens ground out and then on to third on a Lance Burkhart sacrifice fly, the most beautiful play in all of baseball.

The Blue Crabs would score a total of 6 runs in the game, 3 coming in the 6th scored by James Shanks, Jermy Acey and Eric Crozier. And then a run each in the 8th and 9th scored by Jermy Acey and Mike Just respectively. James lead off the 6th with a double and would come in to score on Jermy's single which would be the game winning RBI as the Ducks were unable to get more than one run off of ace pitcher John Halama. Jermy moved to third on Eric's double and then both were brought in on sacrifice flies by Travis Garcia and Jeremy Owens. Jermy singled again in the 8th and would come in on a Jeremy Owens single 3 batters later. For the final run Mike would single to lead off the 9th move to second on a James Shanks walk and then come in to score on an attempted "strike-em out, throw-em out" double play that resulted in a throwing error by the catcher as no one was covering second base. Also on the throwing error James would move to third but was however stranded there.

Defensively the Blue Crabs were again on fire. Left handed starting pitcher John Halama went for his third complete game win improving his record to 7-0. Last season John only pitched 8 games with the Blue Crabs before being called up by the Cleveland Indians to play in their AAA team in Buffalo. Last season he had a record of 4-1 with an era of 1.91. Although a year older having gone 3 complete games and holding a record of 7-0 he shows that he is still able to play the game with the best of them. It would not surprise me if he was called up soon, although should he stay in this league he is almost a shoe in for pitcher of the year. He gave up 7 hits in todays game surrendering one run, struck out two batters and walked a guy. Most impressively I think was him catching the final out, that was lined right back at him by Ducks catcher John Pachot.

In other Blue Crabs news: They look to return home for a 7 game series against the Bridgeport Bluefish who lost tonight and the York Revolution who were not in action tonight. With the Blue Crabs win they extend their lead over Long Island to 5.5 games, improve 5 games ahead of Camden who were not in action tonight, and move to 10 games ahead of the Bridgeport Bluefish. Again third baseman Patrick Osborn was not in the line-up but he himself was quoted as saying he was expecting to be out of action for 7-10 days. As the Blue Crabs return home I would expect to see him worked back into the line-up slowly. Also it is anticipated that John Ramistella will be returning to Southern Maryland with this opening series against Bridgeport. Hopefully this comes to fruition and perhaps he can help us to continue our first place dominance.

Tomorrow's game is scheduled for a 7:05 pm start with a free team poster giveaway to the first 1000 fans. The hometown weather forecast calls for isolated thunderstorms in the area throughout the day. Hopefully there will be about a 5-hour break in the storms from 6-11pm so we can get the whole game in.

Another Win for the Record Books

Although not in the same fashion as last night tonight the Blue Crabs were able to pull off another win against Long Island.

The Blue Crabs offense got off to a strong start with back to back doubles from Richard Giannotti and James Shanks in the first inning. After two errors by Gabe Suarez in the second inning catcher Octavio Martinez was on second base and would come in to score on James Shanks' second RBI Double of the night. From there our bats would go silent until the top of the 9th where interim Third Baseman Chuck Jeroloman would get a single and later come in to score on a James Shanks RBI single. With Patrick still resting his injury Chuck Jeroloman has been playing 3rd and doing an excellent job both offensively and defensively. On second today was Enohel Polanco, he went 1 for 3 with a sacrifice bunt to advance Octavio in the 7th and a single in the 9th; he struck out twice both swinging.

Defensively the Blue Crabs were nearly perfect. Starter Ryan Bicondoa went 6 complete innings facing only 3 more than the minimum, all 3 of which came in his only troublesome inning the 4th. Despite giving up 4 singles in the 4th only two runs scored and would be the only runs scored by the Long Island Ducks in the game. Jimmy Serrano would come in to pitch in the 7th again going for a 1-2-3 inning. Matt Hensley pitched well in the 8th facing 4 batters striking out 1 and walking 1. And again going in to close the game was Jim Ed Warden who would make his 9th save of the season. After giving up a leadoff single he then got the Ducks to hit into a 6-4-3 double play and then struck out the final batter of the inning on 3 pitches.

With the win the Blue Crabs remain in first and advance to 4.5 games ahead of both Long Island and Camden and 9 games ahead of Bridgeport. The Blue Crabs look to go for a sweep of the series tomorrow night in Long Island and then return home for 3 games against Bridgeport and 4 games against York. With only 25 games until the All-Star break it is with high hopes that the Blue Crabs will continue their strong performances.

Blue Crabs Dominate

Tonight's game was an offensive onslaught by the Blue Crabs, with 10 runs scored, a team record 16 hits, 5 homeruns and every player getting at least one hit the offense seemed unstoppable. Combine that with Kenny Baugh's outstanding performance as a starter and it was a recipe for success.

Kenny went for 6 full innings, surrendering 8 hits and 2 runs both earned, walking only one batter while striking out 7 and one wild pitch. He had 3, 1-2-3 innings in the first, third, and sixth. John Hernandez scored both runs he gave up on an RBI single by Estee Harris in the second and an RBI double by Estee in the 5th. In the 7th Mike James came in on relief and faced 5 batters. Getting the first to ground out, he then gave up a single and a walk but finished strong striking out the last two batters he would face. In the 8th Jimmy Serrano came in and had his third consecutive 1-2-3 inning dating back to his last appearance on the 22nd. Finally in the 9th Matt Schweitzer came in and also faced 5 batters. He struck out the first batter he faced on 4 pitches, he then gave up two singles but after getting his 4th batter faced to fly out he was able to get his final batter faced to ground out into a fielder's choice.

Offensively we were unstoppable. Every player got at least one hit and everyone except Lance Burkhart got on base, however with the back-to-back homeruns Lance hit I'm sure he doesn't mind not having been on base. Four different batters hit Homeruns. First was Captain Jeremy Owens in the second, followed by Lance Burkhart in the same inning. Lance would again go the distance in the 3rd on a deep ball way out in left field. In the 7th, second baseman Mike Just hit his first homerun of the season, and then 3 batters later, Jermy Acey hit a bomb way over the left field wall that would score two runs as it was the only homerun hit with a runner on. Every homerun hit was hit to the left field wall, which is 325 feet from home plate. In addition to every batter getting a hit, all batters except Travis Garcia scored a run. Travis however had 3 hits on 5 at bats, and 2 RBIs. The Blue Crabs amassed 16 hits, which is a new team record.

In other Blue Crabs news, Wednesday the 27th should be the first day third baseman Patrick Osborn is eligible to come off the 7 day disabled list so it will be interesting to see if he is reactivated tomorrow or if they wait until their return home. As far as the status of former right fielder John Ramistella, nothing has been officially announced about him signing a contract however it was announced by the on air host of the Blue Crabs that he will be returning. He was expected to graduate from San Diego State University on May 23rd. His start to last season was also delayed by attending college classes. Hopefully we will see him back in a Blue Crabs uniform soon.

The Blue Crabs are still in first place with a 3.5 game lead over both Long Island and Camden, and an 8 game lead over Bridgeport. The Blue Crabs will play 2 more games in Long Island and then come home for what was originally scheduled to be a 6 game home stand that has become a 7 game home stand. The Tuesday June 2nd game against York was originally scheduled to be a 7:05 pm start but is now a 6:05 pm start that will be played as a double header. Two 7-inning games will be played with the second following 30-40 minutes after the completion of the first. The Blue Crabs have played in two double headers so far this season. One against York, which the Blue Crabs swept, and one against Camden, which was split. This double header is to make up a game that was rained out May 5th in York. The game is being made up at the Blue Crabs home stadium because this home stand is the last time York and the Blue Crabs will meet before the end of the first half of the season.

Pictures of the Season so far

As an avid fan of the Blue Crabs and a season ticket holder I have an opportunity to take pictures of the guys throughout the season. Here are what I would consider some of my best shots so far this season.



Third Baseman Patrick Osborn warming up before the game.




Knuckballer Joe Gannon throwing his trademark pitch.



DH/Left Fielder James Shanks trying to beat out a ball off his broken bat.



Second Baseman Mike Just after his swing.



First Baseman Eric Crozier on opening night.



Short Stop Travis Garcia making contact on opening night.



Jermy Acey's first homerun as a Blue Crab.

Day Game Streak Continues

The Southern Maryland Blue Crabs are now 8-0 in day games when they score first. We were able to pull out the win and split the series despite some late inning rallying by Camden. The final score of 4-2 gives Jim Ed Warden his 8th save of the season, which makes him perfect in save attempts. The win goes to starter Kenny Rayborn who gave up 4 hits surrendering only one run that was earned on a solo shot by Val Majewski. Kenny struck out 5 batters 2 looking, and only had one walk on the day.

Our bullpen was a little off base today in the 8th with reliever Mike James giving up 2 walks and loading the bases. Situational Lefty Matt Schweitzer was unable to get his man and walked in a run after working to a full count following 3 straight balls. Jim Ed Warden however came in and got the strike out to end the troublesome 8th. In the bottom of the ninth Jim Ed allowed a lead off single but then got the next 3 batters out in order on a fly out, ground out and strike out respectively.

Offensively we scored runs in 4 separate innings, the 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 7th. As Camden was unable to score more then two runs, Mike Just has for the second game the game winning RBI. Overall his game today was one of his best recently, going 2-2 with a walk and a Sacrifice Fly that scored the game-winning run. Mike has safely hit in the last 4 consecutive games. First baseman Eric Crozier had an excellent game as well going 3-5 with 2 singles, a double, a run scored and a stolen base.

Overall the game was well played by both teams. The Blue Crabs look to head home for the off day tomorrow and then will head out to Long Island early Tuesday morning. Patrick Osborn is expected to come off the disabled list on the 27th, which would be the middle of the 3 game series against Long Island. Also upon returning back home we are expecting to activate right fielder John Ramistella. We currently stand in first place, 2.5 games ahead of the Long Island Ducks and 3 games ahead of the Camden Riversharks and stunning 7.5 games ahead of the Bridgeport Bluefish who recently announced the signing of Henry Mateo by the Tampa Bay Rays and he will play in AAA Durham. Congrats to Henry.

BREAKING NEWS!!!

Despite rumors right fielder John Ramistella might be rejoining the Yankees organization it has been announced that he will be returning to Southern Maryland this season. His entrance to the season was delayed by him finishing up college. He will be activated and start in the home stand that ends this month against the Bridgeport Bluefish.

Splitting the Double Header

Today the Blue Crabs split their double header against the Camden Riversharks.

The first game was a back and forth battle that saw the Blue Crabs take the lead 3 times, the 3rd time being on a Mike Just RBI single which would turn out to be the Game winning RBI. Although it was Mike's only hit of the game it was quite possibly the most important hit of the game. The bulk of the offense came off of homeruns, a solo shot by Captain Jeremy Owens in the second and a 3-run bomb by Chuck Jeroloman in the 4th. In the 7th and final inning of the game the Blue Crabs tacked on 4 additional runs to take a final lead of 9-4. James Shanks and Jermy Acey were able to score on a 2-RBI Triple by first baseman Eric Crozier. Pitcher John Halama was able to go for the full game thus pitching in his league leading second complete game.

The second game was not quite as good for the Crabs as they would go on to lose 4-2. This game however saw the introduction of new Blue Crabs starter Matt DeSalvo. The offense started off promising with a lead-off triple by Giannotti which he would come in to score from on a sacrifice ground out by James Shanks. Despite getting at least 16 batters on base only two would be able to come in score. Matt DeSalvo had an impressive start going 5 innings, with 4 strike outs, 2 walks and a hit batter. Some bad throws by the team however came back to haunt them and the inability to get base runners home resulted in the loss. Matt Hensley came in to the game in the 6th and despite giving up a single and a walk he let no runs score and kept the game close. The game was a hard loss but we were hitting well just not timely. We made good plays and hopefully will be able to pull the best out of these two games and pull off the split of the series as well.

Double Plays and Questionable Calls Cost us Big

Tonight's game was a hard loss. After getting out to a 4-0 lead going into bottom of the 6th it looked like it was going to be an easy win for the Blue Crabs. Then the strings started to unravel after Gannon walked the leadoff batter to end his 5 consecutive innings of getting the first batter out. This was followed by an error by second baseman Jermy Acey and with the bases loaded a balk was called on Gannon. This supposed balk not only gave Camden a run but resulted in Butch Hobson being thrown out of the game for arguing the call. The "balk" made the score 4-3 Blue Crabs still leading, but the Riversharks would continue their assault and bring 3 more runs across taking the lead 6-4, which they would hold until the end of the game.

The Blue Crabs had troubles from the start hitting in to a bases loaded double play to end the first, and then another double play for the first two outs in the second. Finally in the 3rd we were able to capitalize on the base runners, and again in the 4th on a 2 RBI single from Octavio Martinez. Our offense was done after that as we couldn't capitalize on our base runners and were unable to overcome the 2 run deficit brought upon us after the 6th.

On a high note however was the outstanding performance of reliever Jimmy Serrano who struck out 4 of the 6 batters he faced, going for 1-2-3 innings in his two innings of relief.

Tomorrow the Blue Crabs and Camden will play in a doubleheader beginning at 4:05 and the second game beginning 30-40 minutes following the end of the first game. The doubleheader comes as a make up for a game from May 3rd that was rained out. They will both be 7 inning games unless extra innings are needed. Hopefully following this loss we can come back and win them both. We are still in first, ahead of both Long Island and Camden by 2 games.

Thinning the Bull Pen

With the recent release of Jason Blanton our bull pen is thinning at a speed that could prove rather detrimental as the season progresses. A few short weeks ago we lost reliever Jason Navarro to the Mexican leagues, and earlier in the last home stand Edward Rodriguez left to attend to some personal business. I personally do not understand Butch's decision to let Blanton go. Though he had battled a minor injury early in the season he hasn't really been given a chance to prove himself this season. Our starters have been excelling recently so a middle reliever hasn't really been needed but there is no guarantee that they will continue this way. And what of it when the Blue Crabs starters start to falter who will we turn to? Yes we have excellent relievers in Matt Hensley and Jimmy Serrano, and Matt Schweitzer is a situational lefty or closer; Mike James has been used as our setup man for traditional closer Jim Ed Warden but as it stands we have more infielders then bull pen pitchers. Who knows though in this league players are dropped and picked back up all the time so we'll just have to wait and see how this move plays out for the rest of the season.

Break out the Brooms!

Today the Blue Crabs completed a sweep of the Bridgeport Bluefish. For the past 3 games, Richard Giannotti has been the man to thank getting consecutive game winning hits in those 3 games. Tuesday's game, as pictured at the left, was a walk off 2 RBI single, and tonight was a towering homerun over the short porch in left.

Today's game was blown on in the second with back to back singles from Jermy Acey and Mike Conroy, followed by an RBI double by catcher Lance Burkhart. With Mike and Lance on Chuck Jeroloman struck out for the first out. Then the first baseman Octavio Martinez came in with an RBI single that scored Mike Conroy. Second baseman Mike Just pushed hard for a double that easily scored Lance from third. The fourth and final run of the inning was scored on a sacrifice fly by Richard Giannotti, the most beautiful play in all of baseball.

In the top of the 7th Richard Giannotti hit a homerun and put the lid on the Bridgeport Bluefish as they could not score more than 4 runs despite putting 11 runners on base.

Before heading out on the road this weekend the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs announced the release of Outfielder Steve Doetsch and Right Handed Relief Pitcher Jason Blanton. Doetsch appeared in 16 games, hitting .164 in 61 at-bats with 10 Hits and 7 RBIs. Blanton or Country as he was known by the team appeared in 4 games only pitching 4 innings, with no record and a 2.25 ERA he surrendered 5 hits and 5 walks but only gave up 1 earned run. Jason was bothered early in the season by an injury to his middle finger on his throwing hand. Both players will be missed but I hope they find the best of luck in their future ventures and find their way up to the show.

First Place, First Blog.

So this is my first blog for the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs Professional Baseball Club. My name is Samantha and I'm hoping to make this a near daily blog about the goings-on of the club. I'm a season ticket holder and a host family so hopefully I can provide a little bit of insight to the club.

Today we beat the Bridgeport Blue Fish in the 3rd game of a 4 game series, 3-1. This one puts us 2 games ahead of the Long Island Ducks and 3 games ahead of the Camden Riversharks, both teams which edged us out for playoff bids last season.

With starting 3rd baseman Patrick Osborn placed on the disabled list it is probable that Chuck Jeroloman will start at 3rd, and that Mike Just and Enohel Polanco will be splitting time at second. We have recently added another second baseman Jermy Acey, however it is possible that he has been brought on as more of designated hitter rather then as an everyday second basemen.

Jermy put up impressive numbers his first outing out with the Blue Crabs as a DH; he went 3 for 3 with 1 run scored and 2 RBIs. He had two doubles, was hit by a pitch and walked. His efforts in tonight's game as a second baseman were well received, and in last nights game as a designated hitter he had a homerun.

Overall the season has begun well over the first 24 games of the season. Hopefully our strong performances will continue throughout the season and win us that playoff bid. These next two series will be big playing against Camden and Long Island both on the road. Following the 7 road games in 8 days will be a 6 game home stand over the final weekend of May into the beginning of June.

Early Game tomorrow at 10:35 AM, final game against Bridgeport in this series and then Friday morning an early ride into Camden, New Jersey to take on the Riversharks at Campbell's Field.