The Southern Maryland Blue Crabs capped off a series opening victory over Hagerstown by a final score of 10-6. Friday night’s win snapped what was a six-game losing streak for the Crabs.
Jalen Miller earned the win on Friday after tossing five innings of one run baseball. He allowed three hits and three walks, while tying his season-high in strikeouts with six.
The Crabs took an early lead after putting up five in the first inning. Jackson Loftin led off the inning with a double before stealing third base as Zach Racusin drew a walk. With runners at the corners, Alejandro De Aza singled in the game’s first run to give the Crabs a 1-0 lead. After De Aza was thrown out at second, attempting to leg out a double, an RBI single by Dondrei Hubbard made it 2-0 before Brett Barrera reached to put two men on base for Ethan Wilson. Wilson then cranked a three run blast to left to make it 5-0. It was Wilson’s team-leading 13th home run of the season.
Hagerstown nabbed one back in the second but the Crabs tallied a pair in the bottom half. Barrera and Baylor each registered RBI singles to give Southern Maryland a 7-1 lead.
The Crabs then scored one in the fifth on a Pearce Howard solo blast, his 10th of the season, and two in the sixth on a Jamari Baylor two-run bomb that traveled 429 feet.
Hagerstown cut the deficit after putting up a five-run, seventh, but the Crabs held on for the win.
With the win, the Crabs improve to 41-35 overall and 5-9 in the second half.