Blue Crabs to take on first-place Camden

Friday, May 16, 2008

Entering Thursday night’s game, the Blue Crabs trailed Camden by 1.5 games in the standings, but could rise to the top of the division with a strong series against the Riversharks.

‘‘Camden got off to a great start right out of the gate,” said Blue Crabs catcher Adam Shorsher in a phone interview Wednesday. ‘‘It’s really early in the season, but they have been swinging the bats well. But if we just concentrate on playing our game, then we will be all right. At this point, we are just worried about winning each series.”

The Riversharks opened the season with five straight wins and, through Wednesday, boast a 13-6 record. The team is currently first in the Atlantic League in batting, with a team average of .291 and a league-best 105 runs.

Camden’s Josh Rabe, who played for the Minnesota Twins last year, is third in the league with a .377 average. First baseman Brett Bonvechio is tied with Southern Maryland’s Kyle Nichols for the league-lead in RBIs with 18, and leadoff man Chris Walker leads the league with 16 runs.

Camden has hit just 11 home runs, compared to Southern Maryland’s 25.

The Blue Crabs (11-7 before Thursday’s game in Bridgeport) are seventh in an eight-team league in batting, with a team average of .252 through the first 17 games. But the team is second in team pitching, with a collective 4.21 ERA.

‘‘Pitching has been our strength so far, and we are starting to come through at the plate,” Shorsher said. ‘‘As long as we keep pitching well, we will be fine. In most cases, good pitching out-duels good hitting.”

Camden’s record has been aided by the schedule, as it has played just one of six series on the road, where they are 1-2. Offensively, the team has benefited from playing at home, where its predominately left-handed lineup is tailored to the ballpark, according to Blue Crabs manager Butch Hobson.

But the Blue Crabs are not focusing on its upcoming series with the division leaders any more than another series.

‘‘In baseball, every game counts the same as the next,” said second baseman Chad Ehrnsberger. ‘‘You can’t really look at this series as being that big. Right now, Camden is in first place. In a month, they could be in last.”

Instead, according to Hobson, both teams will use this first meeting as a means of sizing up their opponent’s lineup and pitching.

Southern Maryland will return home to face Camden after splitting a series in Long Island and have taken the first two games of a three-game series with Bridgeport, with the final game played Thursday evening. In Connecticut, the team played in 40-degree weather.

‘‘I was out there in the field and I couldn’t feel my hands or feet,” said Ehrnsberger. ‘‘It was so cold that we took the heater out of the clubhouse and put it in the dugout.”

The Blue Crabs defeated the Bluefish, 11-2, on Tuesday after scoring six runs in the fourth inning. The team managed 13 hits, including six doubles, and starting pitcher John Halama picked up his second win of the year in seven innings of work.

On Wednesday, the Blue Crabs picked up a 4-1 win over the Bluefish, as Jeff Farnsworth worked 6 2⁄3 innings to earn his first win of the season. Right fielder John Ramistella hit a two-run home run, his first of the year, in the top of the fifth to give the Blue Crabs a 4-0 lead. Derrick DePriest got the save, as the closer worked a perfect ninth.