Walking-wounded series

Players from both sides got their share of bumps and bruises in the opening four-game series of the season between the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs and Lancaster Barnstormers.

The most notable Blue Crabs injuries occurred on Saturday when starting pitcher Dan Reichert and third base slugger Travis Garcia exited the game prematurely. Reichert took a shot off his right lateral region of the midsection of his body to start the sixth inning from the bat of Lancaster’s Ryan Harvey. That ended Reichert’s outing, which saw him throwing five innings of shutout ball.

Garcia hurt himself while running to first on a fly-out to right in the third inning, tweaking the quad in his leg.

After Sunday’s series finale, Blue Crabs manager Patrick Osborn noted that he expected both to return to action soon Reichert in time for his next scheduled start while Garcia was day-to-day entering Tuesday’s home series opener versus Sugar Land. Garcia did not play on Sunday.

The league had an off day on Monday.

“Reichert got hit where there’s a lot of meat,” Osborn said. “Had [Sunday] really mattered, [Garcia] probably would’ve played.”

In the other clubhouse now

It seemed odd to see former Blue Crabs Adam Godwin and Kody Kirkland dressing in the visitor’s clubhouse at Waldorf’s Regency Furniture Stadium as Lancaster players.

Both were integral parts of the team last year, particularly Godwin, who had a coming-out party as the Blue Crabs’ leadoff man.

John Halama, Lancaster opening night starting pitcher, is also the Blue Crabs former ace lefty from 2008 to 2010. He was ironically traded to Lancaster last year for Godwin. Halama, who was the losing pitcher on Thursday’s opening night in a 6-0 Blue Crabs blanking, tossed the first pitch in the Blue Crabs ballpark in 2008.

The close ties between the two teams are headlined by former Blue Crabs manager Butch Hobson being in his second year as Lancaster’s skipper.

Hobson was the Blue Crabs’ inaugural manager and departed after three seasons following the 2010 campaign to take the same role in Lancaster, where both teams’ ownership group, Opening Day Partners, is located. Hobson is preparing for a position with the ownership group after his managing days in the near future, and he groomed Osborn for the skipper role in Southern Maryland.

Godwin enjoyed the series against his old team as Lancaster’s leadoff man, going 7 for 16 with a double, RBI, run scored and stolen base. He had three hits each in Lancaster’s losses in the series to bookend the four-game set.

Kirkland went 2 for 8 in the series against Blue Crabs pitching while playing in three of the games, hitting a home run with three RBIs and a run scored in Friday’s 6-4 win for Lancaster.

“A lot of the guys [from the Blue Crabs] were texting me before [the series],” Godwin said. “I’m going to be completely honest, it was totally weird, the whole weekend [playing against the Blue Crabs]. On the field, it was all business. I’m a Barnstormer. I enjoyed every bit of my time with Southern Maryland, and it will always have a special place in my heart.”

Statistical coincidence?

Counting the final game of spring training on April 24, the Blue Crabs played Lancaster five times last week.

Lancaster won three of those games, including the exhibition encounter. In all three of those wins, the Blue Crabs held the lead going into the ninth inning and Lancaster pulled off comeback victories with a three-run final frame each time.

DALLAS COGLE