Bethesda Big Train Baseball

Big Train Clinches Regular Season Championship

Big Train 4, Bombers 0

Box Score │ Season Stats

By Andy Ireland
Big Train Staff Writer

The Bethesda Big Train played like champions on a night they earned the title of Cal Ripken, Sr. Collegiate Baseball League Champions. Bethesda was moving and shaking tonight at Shirley Povich Field. A standing-room-only crowd of 761 satisfied fans watched their Big Train play exceptional baseball while drinking freshly shaken lemonade from the World Renowned Lemonade Shaking Guy. The Big Train had little to lose in Tuesday's game against the College Park Bombers with a tie for the regular season championship already guaranteed. The home team gave it their all, a stellar performance winning the baseball game 4-0 giving them 25 wins for the season.

Rhett Teller's (Saint Leo) RBI double to leftfield with two outs in the bottom of the first put the Big Train on the board, scoring Greg Lemon (Salisbury) who had doubled earlier in the inning. The Big Train added another run in the bottom of the second on a Brett Hoeflich (Southern Mississippi) RBI double to left field to plate Andrew Smith (San Francisco).

In the top of the fifth, the Bombers managed to place a runner on second with only one out. Brandon Fleig's (MC- Germantown) attempted bunt single resulted in an out. Chris Nann tried to advance to third after Kenny Moreland (Christopher Newport) threw Fleig out at first but he could not beat the throw by first baseman Teller to end the scoring threat.

The Big Train immediately retaliated by scoring two in the bottom of the fifth. Steve Fay's (Mount Saint Mary's) single set the table for Bethesda before Andrew Smith's hard hit groundball forced the second baseman to commit a throwing error. The fielding mistake proved to be costly, putting Fay and Smith at third base and second base respectively. Teller, the cleanup hitter, came through again with a two RBI single giving the Big Train a 4-0 lead. Teller's performance Tuesday night tied him for the team lead in RBIs with 20 for the season.

Big Train starting pitcher Kenny Moreland threw six shutout innings, giving up only two hits while striking out eight. The win for Moreland gives him five for the season tying him with Adam Redd (Virginia Tech) for team leader in victories. Steve Stone (Mount St. Mary's) and Wyatt Stewart (Richmond) combined for three shutout innings to close out the game and seal the deal for the home team.

College Park Bombers (16-22) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -- 0 2 2
Bethesda Big Train (25-15) 1 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 - -- 4 6 0

WP- Moreland (5-3) LP- Nann
2B: Germano (CPB), Lemon (BBT), Teller (BBT), Hoeflich (BBT)
Attendance: 761
Time: 2 hours and 20 minutes

Big Train Notes: The Bombers beat the Big Train in 4 of their first 5 meetings, but with the Big Train win Tuesday, the teams split the season series four games apiece... With standing-room-only crowds on Saturday and Tuesday nights, the Big Train drew 12,019 fans to the 20 league home games. This average of 601 fans per game is just less than the 615 league average in 2004 despite having some competition from the new ball team playing at RFK... Walter Johnson's grandson Hank Thomas threw out a first ball to commemorate the 98th anniversary of his grandfather's Major League debut. All fans received a limited edition Walter Johnson card... The world renowned Lemonade Shaking Guy you've seen at Camden Yards and RFK was in the house doing his crazy thing and selling one heck of a lot of lemonade... Chick-fil-A, our game night sponsor, served dinner to nearly 90 Big Train volunteers and host families... The Big Train nightly raffle pulled in $538, a 7-year high... After the game, the Big Train players celebrated with a dinner at Rockville's Silver Diner.