Southern Maryland’s Ryan Haug delivered a two-run double in the top of the eighth, rallying the Blue Crabs to a 6-5 win over the Charleston Dirty Birds Sunday at Appalachian Power Park.
The Dirty Birds, who outhit the Blue Crabs 13-8, put together a four-run sixth inning to erase a 4-1 deficit and take a 5-4 lead before Southern Maryland’s comeback. Charleston dropped to 15-18 on the Atlantic League season while Southern Maryland improved to 24-9.
Bradley Roney (2-0) picked up the win in relief for the Blue Crabs and former Cincinnati Reds pitcher Mat Latos pitched a perfect ninth inning for his league-leading 11th save.
Walker Weickel (0-3), who pitched the eighth inning for Charleston, took the loss.
Charleston took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first on an RBI single by Diego Goris, but that was short-lived when Southern Maryland scored three times in the top of the second against Dirty Birds starter Kit Scheetz.
Braxton Lee, who finished 4 for 4 with three runs and two RBIs, got the Blue Crabs’ first runs home with a two-run single and Joe Deluca followed with an RBI double to put Southern Maryland up 3-1.
After the Blue Crabs added a run in the top of the fourth, the Dirty Birds reclaimed the lead with four runs in the bottom of the sixth.
Goris drove in the first run with a single, Alfredo Gonzalez’s two-run double tied the game at 4 and Angel Garced’s RBI single put Charleston on top 5-4.
It stayed that way until Haug’s clutch double in the eighth put Southern Maryland up 6-5.
The finale of the four-game series is set for 1:05 p.m. Monday. The Dirty Birds then hit the road to High Point and Lexington for a pair of three-game series while the state high school baseball tournament takes place at Appalachian Power Park.
Saturday’s game
DIRTY BIRDS 5, BLUE CRABS 2: Charleston got a solid pitching performance from starter Stephen Chamblee, who threw six shutout innings, allowing just four hits with five strikeouts to improve to 2-1.
Southern Maryland finally got on the scoreboard with a run in the eighth inning and another in the ninth, but it wasn’t enough with the Dirty Birds already up 3-0.
Charleston scored a run in the first inning on a Goris RBI single and added two runs in the third on a Nick Longhi RBI single and Engel Beltre’s sacrifice fly.
With his team leading 3-1, Longhi hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning, his sixth of the season, to provide Charleston with a pair of insurance runs.
Longhi went 3 for 3 with three RBIs and Goris had two hits for the Dirty Birds.
