Bethesda comes back to win on manager's birthday

Big Train 11, Orioles 8

Box Score │ Season Stats

Big Train Manager Sal Colangelo received the best birthday present a team could give a manager on Wednesday night in Baltimore. Trailing 6-2 after three innings, the Big Train bats got hot and mounted a spirited come-back 11-8 victory over the Maryland Orioles at Bachman Park to pull back up to .500 on the season.

The Big Train took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second. Drew Carson (Southern Mississippi) led off with a double and moved to third on a single by Andrew Smith (San Francisco). When the catcher tried to throw Smith out stealing second, Carson raced home. Smith scored on an RBI sacrifice line drive to rightfield by Dan Terpak (Florida Atlantic). The Orioles got one back in the bottom of the second when cleanup hitter Andrew Rodgers (Navarro JC) doubled, advanced on a ground out, and scored on a sacrifice fly. Then it got ugly. In the bottom of the third, the Orioles scored 5 runs to take a 6-2 lead. Gavin Swanson (GW) led off the inning with a double. With two outs, Big Train starter Chris Eberhart (Florida Atlantic) gave up a single, two walks and a 3 RBI double to Jeff Nutt (Navarro JC). Robby Smithson (Lipscomb) relieved Eberhart and gave up two more singles before getting the third out.

Greg Lemon (Salisbury) got the party started in the top of the fifth with a lead-off double. He was balked to third and scored on Carson's RBI single. Smith singled. With two outs, Trey Cuevas (Southern Mississippi) belted a 2 RBI triple to bring the score to 6-5. Jonnie Knoble (San Francisco) led off the sixth inning with a walk. Lemon walked. Pinch hitter Rhett Teller blasted a double to score Knoble, and Lemon came home when the leftfielder misplayed the ball. Teller scored as Carson reached on an error by the shortstop. Smith singled, moved to second on a single by Cuevas, to third on a wild pitch, and scored on an RBI single by Terpak. The Train added an important insurance run in the top of the seventh inning when Ken Beamer was hit-by-a-pitch, advanced on a single by Teller, and scored on an RBI single by Carson.

The Orioles narrowed the gap in the bottom of the seventh when reliever Smithson, who had retired 10 of 11 batters, walked the two lead-off batters who both scored. Dan Bajger (Columbia) pitched a 1-2-3 eighth to hold the score at 11-8 going into the ninth. Submarine throwing Big Train reliever Wyatt Stewart (Richmond) took over in the ninth striking out the first two batters on nasty breaking balls. Then it got way too exciting. A single, a walk, and a single loaded the bases and brought the game winning run to the plate. The batter, Jeff Nutt, had beaten the Big Train with a late inning home run just last Saturday night at Bachman Park. Stewart induced a ground ball force out to preserve the victory.

Bethesda Big Train (5-5) 0 2 0 0 3 5 1 0 0 -- 11 14 0
Maryland Orioles (5-6) 0 1 5 0 0 0 2 0 0 -- 8 9 5
WP: Smithson; LP: Volker; Save: Stewart
3B: Cuevas (BBT);
2B: Carson (BBT); Rodgers (MO), Swanson (MO), Nutt (MO); Lemon (BBT); Teller (BBT)
Attendance: 32
Time: 3 hours, 6 minutes

Big Train Notes: Sal turned 33 and had a bottle of water poured on his head by first baseman Rhett Teller... By the way, the Big Train players can play ball, but you don't want to hire them to sign "Happy Birthday" at your party... Carson scored three runs and had three hits and two RBI... Smith had three hits and scored three runs... Cuevas had two hits and three RBI.