Frederick Keys fall to Carolina Mudcats 10-2

     On Friday April 26^th, the Frederick Keys opened a 3 series with the Carolina Mudcats at Harry Grove Stadium in front of 6,128 people. The Keys are the Single A, High A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. The Keys entered the game at 10-10, while the Mudcats came into town with a 9-11 record. Jordan Cooper of the Mudcats pitched 8 innings and held the Keys to 3 hits with 1 walk and 8 strike outs. At the plate, The Mudcats opened up the scoring in the 2^nd inning with producing 4 runs in the first four innings before putting the game out of reach for the Keys in the fifth inning. The Mudcats sent 8 batters up in the inning, Jake Lowery would drive 2 runs in with a 2 run bases loaded double. Bryson Miles would drive in a run with a sacrifice fly out and Yhoxian Medina would ground out and brought home another run. The Mudcats would add another 2 runs in the 7^th inning to make it 10-0. The Keys would prevent the shutout in the bottom of the 9^th when  Travis would hit a single to bring in Steve Bumbry to break the shutout and Zane Chavez hit a sacrifice fly to bring Mike Planeta home to make the score 10-2.   

      The Frederick Keys are celebrating their 25^th year of playing baseball in the Carolina League. Danny Charlip of Rockville was attending his first Keys game and was surprised by the atmosphere offered at a Keys home game, Mr.Charlip added “I’ve been to a-lot of minor league stadiums and this was a-lot better than I expected going in”. The Keys are usually in the top 3 of the 10 teams of the Carolina League in Attendance. Harlon Mitchell of Hagerstown explained “I’ve been once this year and I think the last time I went was about 10 years ago”. Kevin Walsh of Frederick added “I’ve actually been to more Hagerstown Suns games in the last 2 years than Keys games, but I look forward to going to more games this year”. The Keys season runs from the beginning of April and runs through September 2^nd.  It is a very worthwhile attraction in the state of Maryland. With the Orioles placing the majority of their Minor League affiliates in the State of Maryland in Aberdeen, Salisbury, Frederick, Bowie. Seeing the Keys is an excellent way to see plays that could potentially play for the Orioles.