NEWARK, NJ - A dominating pitching performance and a couple of key base running plays catapulted the Newark Bears over the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs by the score of 2-0 on Thursday morning at The Den.

It was a rainy 11:05 AM start for The Bears who earned a quick run in the bottom of the first. Mike Just led off with a single and then stole second and third base. Ramon Castro brought him in with a sacrifice fly to put Newark up 1-0.

Just scored again on a sacrifice fly in the fifth, this one was off the bat of Cory Aldridge. Just was three-for-four on the day, all singles, scoring two runs and swiping two bases as well.

Starter Patrick Stanley (7-1) carried the Bears through the game, dominating the Southern Maryland lineup striking out ten in his 6 1/3 innings of work.

“I brought a good tempo today,” said Stanley. “It was better than I’ve had in the last couple of starts, as a result I was able to keep the ball down, everything was a little sharper, last couple of weeks I was slowing down and my arm was dragging behind me, I got back on track today.”

“He was a lot better today,” said manager Wayne Krenchicki. “And he’s still that type of pitcher where he may lose for a half-inning like he did and then come back and strike out the side and that’s the way he is, but overall it was a real good outing.”

Indeed, in the sixth inning the bases were loaded with no one out and the Blue Crabs had Stanley on the ropes. Stanley reared back and struck out John Ramistella, Curtis Pride and Clinton Johnston in successive fashion to keep Southern Maryland off the board.

In the seventh, a freak occurrence ended Stanley’s outing a little early.

After striking out James Shanks, catcher Scott Knazek casually tossed the ball back to Stanley who just happened to be caught the wrong way and the ball hit Stanley flush in the eye. He was okay after the game, but was taken out of the game at that point as a precaution.

“Yeah, its okay now,” said Stanley. “It burned a little bit at the time, but its fine now.”

Steven Kent (1) came on in the ninth and picked up his first save of the season.

Despite the win, the Bears let a few chances slip by the wayside in the middle innings to get a few more runs across the plate and the bullpen, aside from Kent was a little shaky in this game.

“I don’t know how we got a shutout with nine walks,” said Krenchicki. “And we had some opportunities to put some runs on the board and we weren’t able to get that timely hit and bust the door wide open.”

However, the fact remains that the Bears keep pace with Somerset and remain just one game out of first place. The team will embark on a 12-game road trip beginning with a three-game set in Camden against the Riversharks. Mike Bumstead will take the hill for Newark on Friday night.

  E-mail this story |  Printer-friendly |  Discuss