On the brink

Blue Crabs hold 2-game lead going into Camden series

Friday, July 2, 2010

That was the scenario facing the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs entering Thursday's opener to an all-or-nothing, four-game series against the visiting Camden Riversharks with the season's first-half Liberty Division title on the line.

Thursday's game ended too late for inclusion into this edition.

Winning a division title is the only way Atlantic League teams can clinch a playoff berth by Sunday's conclusion to the first half of the season, and the first-place Blue Crabs (39-27) are locked up in a marquee tilt this weekend at Waldorf's Regency Furniture Stadium with a Camden team in their rearview mirror, the second-place Riversharks (37-29), trailing by two games in the standings as they embarked on this playoff-caliber, deciding series — thanks to the schedule-makers.

The Blue Crabs' magic number to clinch the division title was two games entering Thursday, meaning they need no worse than a split in the four games with Camden.

Should the teams finish with the same first-half record — resulting in the Blue Crabs losing three of four this weekend — then Camden would win the division based on the head-to-head tiebreaker. The teams were 3-3 against each other entering Thursday, each trading series sweeps at home.

"This is going to be a fun series," Blue Crabs center fielder and hitting coach Jeremy Owens said Wednesday night on an upbeat team bus returning home after Southern Maryland won its second straight game in Lancaster. "It's a four-game set that means something — a little bit more than the rest of the series. This is going to create a playoff atmosphere. We're fully confident, and they're just as confident as we are. This is what this game is about."

He added, "I think we have the edge because we're at home. We've always played well at home. Obviously, we're going to be focused but we're not going to put too much pressure on ourselves."

The Blue Crabs always have thrived in front of the home fans, boasting an 18-9 mark at Regency Furniture Stadium this season entering Thursday. The third-year franchise posted an 86-55 mark in Southern Maryland the last two seasons.

And the Blue Crabs have more numbers in their favor going into this highly anticipated series. They were as hot as the weather in June, sporting a 21-9 mark while leapfrogging Camden for the division lead, after struggling with inconsistency in April and May.

The Blue Crabs have not lost a series in more than a month, a span of nine straight. The Blue Crabs have won seven of those nine series.

The streak remained intact after the Blue Crabs battled back in Lancaster to capture clutch wins of 6-0 Tuesday and 7-3 Wednesday after getting swept in Monday's doubleheader to begin that four-game series.

Camden, which trailed the Blue Crabs by three games at the beginning of the week, swept its Monday doubleheader to suddenly move within a game and make things a lot dicier for Southern Maryland.

But the Blue Crabs got a masterful pitching performance from Dan Reichert Tuesday, throwing eight innings of shutout ball, and then received another solid start from hurler Jarrett Santos Wednesday while Casey Benjamin connected for a backbreaking three-run homer in the eighth to overcome a spoiler-minded Lancaster outfit.

After taking the first three games in Somerset, Camden lost the series finale Wednesday to fall two behind the Blue Crabs in the standings.

Interestingly enough, the Blue Crabs still need at least a split with Camden this weekend whether they took a one- or two-game lead into the series. So picking up the extra game on Camden in the standings with Wednesday's outcomes did not make anything easier on the Blue Crabs in terms of clinching the first-half division title because the Riversharks hold the tiebreaker.

"It didn't matter if our magic number was one or if we had already clinched [the division]," said Owens, the Blue Crabs offensive catalyst Wednesday with a 4-for-5 showing, two doubles and two runs scored. "We have goals set. Butch [Hobson, manager,] always challenges us to play .500 on the road and play .750 at home. So we don't just want to split [with Camden].

"Our magic number is three. We want to win the series. We believe we're the best team."

Reichert, a day after being named to his first league All-Star Game, celebrated by only allowing six hits — all singles — during his shutout stint, upping his tab to 8-5. Only one Lancaster hitter made it as far as second base during the game.

Reichert was second in the league in wins entering Thursday, while his 74 strikeouts and 3.54 ERA were second and eighth, respectively, in the league.

Pat Osborn and Eric Crozier spearheaded the Blue Crabs offense Tuesday, each going 2 for 4 with a double and RBI. They were responsible for scoring three times with Crozier crossing the plate twice.

The win halted the Blue Crabs' skid of two games from their failed twin bill the day before and was especially crucial because Camden was also victorious Tuesday. Thus, the Blue Crabs held on to their slim one-game lead going into Wednesday while retaining their psychological edge in the division.

"First off, we have to take our hats off to Lancaster. They've been swinging the bats well and we didn't know how well they had been swinging them," Owens said. "I don't think we overlooked them [Monday]. They just stuck it to us. After [Monday], we made some adjustments.

"With [Reichert] shutting them out, that set a good tone for us coming out [Wednesday]. Our pitching staff has had a lot to do with our success. We have some good momentum going into the series with Camden."

The Blue Crabs trailed Lancaster, 3-1, after two innings Wednesday but fought back with two runs in the fourth to knot the game and then tallied what turned out to be the winning run in the fifth — setting the stage for Benjamin's nail-in-the-coffin shot in the eighth.

Jamar Hill had the timely two-out single in the fourth for the Blue Crabs to drive in Travis Garcia and Owens to make it a three-all game.

Former major leaguer Jason Lane then got his first RBI as a Blue Crab in the fifth with a one-out single to score Crozier, who had tripled.

"We're really playing good baseball," Owens said. "We salvaged our series with Lancaster to win the last two games and put ourselves in a series [with Camden] where we took a little bit of pressure off ourselves."

dcogle@somdnews.com

Atlantic League standings

(Standings through Wednesday)

Liberty Division W L Pct. GB Streak Last 10

Southern Maryland 39 27 .591 ---- W-2 7-3

Camden 37 29 .561 2.0 L-1 5-5

Bridgeport 34 32 .515 5.0 W-5 8-2

Long Island 33 33 .500 6.0 W-2 5-5

Freedom Division W L Pct. GB Streak Last 10

York 38 28 .576 ---- L-2 5-5

Somerset 34 32 .515 4.0 W-1 2-8

Lancaster 29 37 .439 9.0 L-2 5-5

Newark 20 46 .303 18.0 L-4 2-8

Tuesday

Blue Crabs 6, Lancaster 0

Blue Crabs 021 010 020 — 6 9 0

Lancaster 000 000 000 — 0 6 3

WP Reichert (8-5), LP Thompson (1-5)

Extra-base hits: 2B — Osborn (BC), Crozier (BC)

Wednesday

Blue Crabs 7, Lancaster 3

Blue Crabs 010 210 030 — 7 15 2

Lancaster 030 000 000 — 3 8 1

WP Santos (5-2), LP Sanchez (2-8)

Extra-base hits: 2B — Garcia (BC), Owens 2 (BC), Nelson (L), Perry (L), Mulhern (L), Morris (L); 3B — Crozier (BC); HR — Benjamin (BC, 7)