atlanticleague.com

The Southern Maryland Blue Crabs put together a historic first half to the Atlantic League’s 2022 Championship season. Finishing the first half with a 48-18 record and winning the North Division first half pennant, the Blue Crabs set the record for the best winning percentage in any half-season in Atlantic League history.

Southern Maryland’s winning percentage of .727 eclipsed the previous best mark of .714 set by the 2015 Somerset Patriots. And the Blue Crabs’ 48 wins trail only that same 2015 Patriots club that won 50 games in the first half.

But history has not been kind to the clubs that have excelled in a half-season. Southern Maryland is just the 11^th team in league history to win 45 or more games in a half. Of those previous 10, only one went on to win the Atlantic Championship, that being the 2015 Somerset Patriots who defeated the Blue Crabs in the Championship Series.

Another thing to watch for in the second half is whether Southern Maryland or Gastonia can repeat as champion in their respective divisions.  There have been 14 clubs that have won both halves with the 2019 Long Island Ducks being the most recent. Long Island went on to defeat Sugar Land in the Championship Series. But clubs that have won both halves have only gone on to win the championship six times in 14 tries.

Only once in Atlantic League history have the same two teams repeated as first and second half champions. That occurred in 2009 when Southern Maryland won both halves of the Liberty Division and Somerset won the Freedom Division twice. Somerset took the Championship series from the Blue Crabs.