The Comeback Spirit Alive Again

Falling behind 4-1 after the first inning it seemed as though there was little left in the tank after last nights come from behind win. But the never say die spirit of the Blue Crabs would prevail as they staged another comeback in the second inning.

After Mike Just fouled a pitch off his knee he doubled on a dropped fly ball by the right fielder and scored on an RBI single hit by Patrick Osborn for the only run in the first. Mike would leave the game in the top of the second obviously ailing from his earlier at bat. Jeremy Owens led off the stellar second inning by being hit by a pitch. He would advance on a single hit by Jermy Acey and then score on a sacrifice fly hit by catcher Lance Burkhart. John Ramistella would single scoring Jermy Acey. Chuck Jeroloman who came in for the injured Just would walk, as would Travis Garcia. John would round the bases after Patrick Osborn would too be hit by a pitch. Chuck and Travis would both score on a two RBI single hit by James Shanks. The Blue Crabs bats would fall silent until the 9th where 5 more runs would score bringing the Blue Crabs total to 11 runs. The Blue Crabs scored a combined 32 runs over the 3 game series while only allowing the Bears 19. Patrick Osborn led off the 9th with a double and would be pinch run for by Richard Giannotti. A pitch would hit James Shanks, putting runners on 1st and second. Following a strike out by Jeremy Owens, Jermy Acey would single scoring Richard Giannotti. Catcher Lance Burkhart would double scoring two runs in James Shanks and Jermy Acey. Octavio Martinez would be the forth hit by a pitch and would score on an errant play that allowed Travis Garcia to get on. In the second and ninth innings the Blue Crabs sent 10 batters to the plate.

Defensively the Blue Crabs were nearly perfect following the first inning. Kenny Rayborn went 6.1 innings for the win. He allowed only 5 hits and 4 earned runs. He walked 5 batters while striking out two. Matt Schweitzer faced only two batters though he pitched a full inning of relief. He got one batter to hit into a double place to end the 7th and then struck out the lead off man in the 8th. Mike James pitched the remainder of the 8th hitting a batter and allowing a single. He was however saved by the ever-impressive glove of Chuck Jeroloman. Chuck, who has been struggling at the plate since the beginning of June, made a diving play towards second snagging the ball and tagging out the lead runner before completing the double play throwing the batter out running to first. In a less eventful bottom of the 9th Matt Hensley pitched the conclusion of the game. He has a 1-2-3 inning getting two groundouts and a fly out.

In other Blue Crabs News: Since the Blue Crabs and the Bears were the only teams in action this morning the Blue Crabs only pick up a half game on all the other teams. Thus they are 5.5 ahead of Long Island, 10.0 ahead of Bridgeport and 10.5 ahead of Camden. When the results of tonight games are announced I will post updated standings. The Blue Crabs next look to take on the Somerset Patriots on the road for four games before returning home to play 4 games, 3 against the Lancaster Barnstormers and one against the Camden Riversharks. The Riversharks game is a make up of a game that was rained out June 18th.