Leftfielder Richard Giannotti’s RBI single in the bottom of the ninth gave the Blue Crabs a 6-5 win and the three game sweep of the Somerset Patriots on Sunday evening before a crowd of 3,432 at Regency Furniture Stadium, bringing the season attendance up to 102,469.
RHP Connor Robertston (3-2) started for the Crabs, allowing five runs through six innings for a no decision. Fellow righty Jim Ed Warden earned his fourth win of the season, pitching the ninth before Giannotti’s game winner. The Patriots took a 1-0 lead in the second, and then upped it to 3-0 the next inning on a two run homer by rightfielder Joe Holden. Then in the fifth, first baseman Michael Hernandez drove in shortstop Elliott Ayala with an RBI base hit.
The Blue Crabs responded in the bottom of the inning, cutting the Patriots’ lead in half with a leadoff homer from Giannotti, his third of the year, and then a one out bomb to left from rightfielder Jamar Hill. It was Hill’s sixth of the year. Somerset LHP Justin Jones (3-4) made it into the sixth, but left with the bases loaded and nobody out. RHP Ben Grezlovski replaced Jones and struck out the side.
The Blue Crabs tied the game at five in the eighth. First baseman Eric Crozier led off with a walk and later scored from third on a wild pitch by Somerset RHP Jeff Kennard. Then Hill hit a game-tying RBI single, scoring second baseman Kody Kirkland. RHP Jerry Dunn (1-1) suffered the loss when with two outs in the ninth, Giannotti bounced his game-winning single through the right side of the infield, scoring pinch runner Shaun Cumberland.
The Blue Crabs are three games ahead of the Camden Riversharks for first place in the Atlantic League Liberty Division with eight games remaining in the first half of the season. The Blue Crabs return to action on Monday on the road when they begin a four-game series with a doubleheader against the Lancaster Barnstormers at Clipper Magazine Stadium beginning at 6 p.m.