Seven hits net eight runs as Big Train wins again

Big Train 8, Rangers 5

Big Train manager Sal Colangelo continued to tinker with his line-up and his pitching staff in an 8-5 Sunday exhibition win over the Carroll County Rangers as the team prepares for the 2005 Cal Ripken, Sr. Collegiate Baseball League inaugural season.

Colangelo used five pitchers after Jon Link (Bluefield) started and went two innings. Jimmy Kelly (Middle Tennessee State), Brett Tidball (Georgetown Prep/Maryland), Robby Smithson (Lipscomb), Derek Caldwell (Rider), and Wyatt Stewart (Richmond) followed Link.

The Rangers managed five runs on five hits, three of which came off the bat of leadoff man Ryan Haril. Haril also scored two runs. Third baseman Dave Beach drove in three of the five Ranger runs with a home run in the third inning. After Beach's home run, Big Train pitching allowed just five baserunners (three walks, two singles) in the final 6 2/3 innings.

Shortstop Ken Beamer (Findlay) and first baseman Rhett Teller (Saint Leo), two former Clark Griffith League standouts, led the Big Train with two hits apiece. Beamer scored a run, and Teller drove one in with a double in the fifth. Centerfielder Marcus Jones (Landon/NC State) scored twice, and catcher Steve Fay (Mount St. Mary's) doubled in a run and later scored in a three-run fourth inning for Bethesda.

Third baseman Bryan Thomas (Virginia Tech) scored twice for the Big Train.

The Big Train plays the Maryland Orioles, a fellow entry in the Cal Ripken, Sr. League, in an exhibition at Bachman Park on Monday, June 6 at 7 pm.