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A thunderstorm cut short the Maryland Black Barons' game Friday evening against the Maryland Nationals, but it went long enough for the Barons to have one costly bad inning in a

6-1 loss.

Coach Stephen Moses described the setback as a "microcosm" of many of the team's losses this summer, noting that the Barons frequently have been burned by one bad inning.

Brian Whitmore, an Eleanor Roosevelt High School graduate, allowed five runs on five hits in the bottom of the third. He hit one Nationals' batter with the bases loaded, then permitted a two-run single to Joe Pohlman, who was thrown out at second attempting to take the extra base.

Meanwhile the offense mustered only one run on three hits against Nationals' starter Seth Bova. Katim Butler scored in the fourth inning when Mike Kerdock grounded into a double play. Moses said his players have struggled to adjust to the wooden bats used in MCBL games after playing with aluminum bats in high school and college games.

"We haven't been able to score many runs hitting with wooden bats," Moses said. "Other than that, defensively we've been pretty good. We only had one error [on Friday]. I thought Brian Whitmore threw well. It was his first start all summer. Considering that it was his first game, I thought he did OK."

Trailing 6-0 heading to the top of the fourth, Butler gave the Black Barons a glimmer of hope with a bloop single. Rueben Castro (High Point High/Prince George's Community College) followed with a sharp single, and Butler took third on the play. Butler then scored when Kerdock grounded into a double play.

"I thought their pitcher was OK," said Kerdock, a Roosevelt graduate who played this past spring at Northwest Shoals Community College in Alabama. "We just weren't able to get many hits. But this is a good team to be a part of. We're getting better and we have fun playing together."

Kerdock had a one-out single in the seventh, and Gwynn Park High graduate Brandon Proctor drew a two-out walk. Both runners collected stolen bases before Friendly High grad Jason Barnes lined out to end the inning.

Before the Black Barons could step to the plate in the top of the eighth, the umpires ordered both teams off the field due to lightning. After a series of lightning strikes that appeared to be getting closer, followed by rain and hail, the teams agreed at 7:45 p.m. that the game would not resume.

The weather improved over the weekend, but the Black Barons' fortunes did not. Saturday afternoon, the team dropped a 10-3 decision to the Southern Maryland Cardinals. Sunday afternoon, they dropped both ends of a doubleheader against the Putty Hill Blue, 6-1 and 7-1. The club is 1-11 in the Maryland Collegiate Baseball League and 5-11 overall, and is scheduled to play in the U-19 bracket at this weekend's Bowie Fourth of July Blast.

"It was a tough weekend, all around," Moses said. "I can't think of any bright spots. We scored three runs on Saturday at Blue Crabs' Stadium and that was mainly on errors. We only got one run in each of those two games on Sunday. Hopefully our pitching will be good this weekend. We're going to Bowie for that 19-and-under tournament. We'll have to manufacture some runs. We haven't been able to score many runs playing with wooden bats, so maybe the aluminum bats will help."

E-mail Ted Black at tblack@gazette.net.