Rain would delay the start of the game by almost two hours.

When team officials saw a weather window, they pulled the tarp for an eventual 8:15 p.m. start.

Revs' skipper Andy Etchebarren, however, wasn't so confident the weather would stay clear. So, sitting in his office, he put on his meteorologist hat and looked at the situation. After mulling it over for a moment, Etchebarren finally decided to pull right-hander Shawn Hill from his scheduled start and instead give left-handed reliever James Houser the spot start.

Etchebarren figured if the game were delayed just a few innings into the contest, he didn't want to waste a start from Hill, who has yet to give up a run in his four starts with the Revs.

As it turned out, the rain never came, the Revs collected just enough runs and seven pitchers combined to hold the Blue Crabs to just two runs in a 3-2 victory.

"I made a mistake," Etchebarren said afterwards. "With the rain, I didn't want to waste Hill. He's our best pitcher. I didn't want him to pitch three innings and then not pitch him again for another four days. So, I took a chance. It worked out."

The win pulled York (21-23) to an even 1-1 in the three-game series with the Blue Crabs (23-22). Now, York still has one of its top starters lined up to pitch in the series finale on Wednesday night. The Revs also moved to within six games of the first-place Lancaster Barnstormers in the Atlantic League Freedom Division. Lancaster postponed its scheduled game against Sugar Land on Tuesday because of rain.

Pitching: Making his first start of the year for York, Houser lived up to the task by tossing 22/3 innings of scoreless ball, giving up four hits while striking out two and walking one.

Houser made his first start since 2010. The former big leaguer missed all of 2011 after undergoing open-heart surgery to repair an enlarged aorta.

"It's been awhile (since I last started)," Houser said. "I'm happy to get the win today."

Left-handed reliever Kris Regas gave up York's only runs in the seventh on two hits and one strikeout in 11/3 innings.

Relievers Ricardo Gomez (2-0), Adam Thomas, Dumas Garcia, Stephen Penney and R.J. Rodriguez combined to hold Southern Maryland scoreless in the other five innings. Rodriguez picked up his eighth save of the season by getting the final four outs.

First baseman Chris Nowak had the play of the night when he got the first out of the ninth inning by scooping up a line drive and firing it across the field to third baseman Ramon Castro, who tagged out Blue Crabs' lead-runner David Espinosa.

"Nowak made a hell of a play in the ninth," Houser said. "That's amazing. I've never seen that."

York went ahead 1-0 in the second on a sacrifice fly from Danny Gonzalez that scored Brandon Haveman from third. The Revs added two more runs in the third off of Southern Maryland starter Hunter Jones (0-1) with an RBI single from Ramon Castro and RBI double from Michael Hernandez.

Next game: Hill (1-0, 3.04 ERA) will oppose Southern Maryland starter Dan Reichert (3-1, 2.61) in Wednesday's game, with first pitch scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

Reach John Walk at jwalk@yorkdispatch.com.