The Southern Maryland Blue Crabs fell 21-20 after a 10-3 loss to the Gastonia Ghost Peppers on Wednesday night.
The Blue Crabs jumped out in front early when John Taylor and Dondrei Hubbard led off the first inning with a pair of walks. On the ensuing at-bat Alejandro de Aza grounded an RBI single into right field to give the Blue Crabs a 1-0 lead.
Southern Maryland doubled their lead when Sam Dexter cranked his sixth home run of the season in the second.
Gastonia answered back with a run in the third, fourth and fifth innings, before putting up three runs in the sixth and four runs in the eighth.
Southern Maryland scored one in the ninth, courtesy of an RBI single from Brett Barrera.
Offensively, the Blue Crabs got on base throughout the ballgame but ended up leaving 16 men on the basepaths. Southern Maryland recorded a hit in every inning, yet they only scored in the first two frames.
Dondrei Hubbard had a four-hit game, Barrera tallied three hits and Giovanni Digiacomo and Sam Dexter each tallied a pair of knocks.
Garrett Martin was handed the loss after surrendering six runs on eight hits through 5.1 innings. Rafi Vazquez, Santiago Florez and Noah Williamson all made appearances in relief to close out the ballgame.
The Blue Crabs will look to take the rubber match on Thursday night with first pitch salted for 6:35 p.m.