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(Breaking news) Somerset repeats as league champion over the Blue Crabs
Ace Halama has rare off day, unable to send Blue Crabs to deciding Game 5
Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009
One run on five hits in a complete-game win.
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That's usually the pitching line for Southern Maryland Blue Crabs ace John Halama.
Not Sunday in Game 4 of the Atlantic League championship series with the Blue Crabs staring at elimination in the best-of-five matchup against visiting Somerset.
The former Major League veteran – whose left arm has dominated Blue Crabs opposition in the regular season with an 8-1 tab and 1.96 earned run average and had been even better in the first round of the playoffs, undefeated in two long starting appearances with an 0.57 ERA – was surprisingly upstaged by Somerset counterpart Jason Standridge on the mound.
It was Standridge who went the distance, allowing just a first-inning Blue Crabs score and five singles in pitching Somerset to a repeat league championship in an impressive 11-1 victory at Waldorf's Regency Furniture Stadium.
After allowing a one-out base knock in the second, Standridge did not yield another hit until the start of the ninth – covering a span of 22 straight Blue Crabs batters. Standridge, a former Major Leaguer, had not pitched previously in this year's playoffs and was just a pedestrian 4-4 in the regular season with a 5.13 ERA.
His Halama impersonation was plenty enough to eliminate the second-year Blue Crabs from their inaugural postseason appearance. Somerset erupted into celebration on the Blue Crabs diamond upon recording the final out of the game.
"I was throwing very good in the playoffs, so it is disappointing in that sense but you got to tip your cap to them," said Halama, whose worst outing of the year for the Blue Crabs saw him go just 4 2/3 innings while surrendering six runs – four earned – on seven hits with five strikeouts and an uncharacteristic five walks. "This is all on me. If I make my pitches, I get them out just like I got Long Island out [in the first round of the playoffs]. I wasn't able to make my pitches. The balls were slick, and I wasn't able to get a feel for it. I walked five batters and the couple of hits I gave up, it wasn't like they scalded balls.
"Don't get me wrong, I know that's part of the game. But they didn't go out there and beat the crap out of me. I beat myself by walking five batters."
Somerset also won last year's championship series in four games and now possesses five crowns in the 12-year history of the league. Somerset's championships are a league best.
"We came here with a goal, and anytime you can start spring training and have a goal to win a championship and come through with it, that's a testament to this team and organization," said Somerset third baseman Jeff Nettles, the championship series MVP.
Nettles batted .375 (6 for 16) in the series with three homers, six RBIs and seven runs scored.
Somerset won both their games in the Blue Crabs' confines after leaving its ballpark tied at 1 in the series.
Halama was supposed to be an automatic victory in Game 4 to send the series to a deciding Game 5, which would have been hosted by the Blue Crabs on Monday, but Standridge and company had other plans.
