Bethesda sweeps the Redbirds

Big Train 1, Redbirds 0

Big Train 11, Redbirds 5

Game 1 Box Score │ Game 2 Box Score │ Season Stats

On Sunday June 19, the Silver Spring-Takoma Thunderbolts beat our Bethesda Big Train 3-1 to drop the Big Train season record to 3-5 and the team into the basement of the Cal Ripken, Sr. Collegiate Baseball League. This Sunday June 26, Bethesda swept a doubleheader from the Maryland Redbirds to extend our win streak to seven and take sole possession of first place.

After tossing a complete-game shutout against the Maryland Orioles on Tuesday to begin the Big Train win streak, the gritty righthanded Adam Redd (Virginia Tech) came back with five more scoreless innings to win game-one of Sunday's doubleheader against the Redbirds, 1-0. In the second game, Greg Lemon (Salisbury) reached base in all six plate appearances and Brett Hoeflich (Southern Mississippi) hit a three-run home run, as the Big Train cruised to an 11-5 win at Schuerholz Park at Towson University.

Brett Tidball (Maryland) relieved the workhorse Redd in the sixth inning of game one and pitched two scoreless innings to earn his first save. Mike Santmyer (Seton Hall) was the hard-luck loser for the Redbirds. He allowed just the one run in the complete-game loss, while striking out six.

The Redbirds only threat came in the fourth when Jensen and Ames reached on singles -- Andrew Jensen's ground ball to deep shortstop and Tyler Ames's bloop to no-man's land in right field. A double play and a fly out erased the threat. In the top of the fifth, Nick Cleckler (Jacksonville State) led off with a single up the middle and stole second. Bryan Thomas (Virginia Tech) grounded out to advance Cleckler to third. After a fly-out to shallow center, Jonnie Knoble (San Francisco) delivered Cleckler on a two-out line-drive single to left field.

Game-two was all Big Train until the late innings, as Bethesda took advantage of three walks, six hit batsmen, and four Redbird errors to build a 10-0 lead in the eighth inning. Rhett Teller (Saint Leo) went 2-for-3 with two RBI before being replaced by Hoeflich, who hit a three run home run in the eighth inning. Thomas went 3-for-4 with a double and two RBI.

Derek Caldwell (Rider) was solid in his first start of the season, allowing just two hits and striking out six in six innings of work to pick up his first win. Brandon Brooks exited after just two innings for the Redbirds, and took the loss.

Big Train (9-5) 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 -- 1 7 1
Redbirds (8-6) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -- 0 3 2
WP: Redd (2-0) LP: Santmyer (0-1) S: Tidball (1)
Attendance: 37
Time: 2 hours

Big Train (10-5) 1 4 0 1 0 0 0 4 1 -- 11 14 4
Redbirds (8-7) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 2 -- 5 8 4
WP: Caldwell (1-0) LP: Brooks (0-3)
HR: Bethesda -- Hoeflich
2B: Bethesda -- Beamer, Thomas, Terpak; Maryland -- Ames
Attendance: 29
Time: 2 hours and 40 minutes

Big Train Notes: Chris Rhoades, one of the starting pitchers on the 2004 Griffith League championship team that set the wooden bat team ERA record, was at the game. Chris has graduated from Towson and has begun an MBA program. He has one more season of college eligibility. Chris is in rehab and is not playing baseball this summer... Hit streaks: Knoble has a seven-game hit streak. He is 10-for-32 with a double and two RBI in that stretch. Cleckler and Lemon each have six-game hit streaks. Cleckler is 9-for-22 with five runs, seven RBI, and four stolen bases in that stretch. Lemon is 8-for-22 with nine runs, a double, two RBI during his streak, and three stolen bases. Thomas is 11-for-25 with four runs, eight RBI, and four doubles in his last six games.