Big Train 3, Thunderbolts 0 (Suspended)

Box Score │ Archived Webcast

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes it rains. Prior to Monday night's championship game, Cal Ripken, Sr. Collegiate Baseball League Commissioner Bill Spencer had ruled appropriately that Monday night's game between the Bethesda Big Train and the Silver Spring Thunderbolts would be played to completion no matter what the weather on Monday. As the potential championship game, the Commissioner ruled that the traditional baseball notion of a game being official after five innings would not apply. Sure enough, the rains pelted down in the top of the sixth inning and lightning knocked out the Blair Stadium field lights soon after. The Big Train was ahead of the T'Bolts 3-0 with runners on first and third and only one out. The game will pick up where it left off on Tuesday August 9 at Shirley Povich Field at 4:30 p.m. If the Thunderbolts come back and win the game, they will be the 2005 CRSCBL Playoff Champions. If the Big Train can hold its lead, a final championship game will be played 30 minutes after the completion of game seven.

Jonnie Knoble (San Francisco) led off the game with a single, stole second, and scored on a throwing error. Big Train starter Derek Caldwell (Rider) retired the first seven T'Bolt batters before walking the bases loaded in the third. Justin McClanahan (NW Shoals CC) then crushed a ball to the deepest part of the ballpark, but the swift Knoble ran it down to end the Silver Spring threat. Again in the fourth inning, Caldwell got out of trouble despite allowing back-to-back singles by Alex Udwari (Belmont Abbey) and Zach Clark (UMBC). In the top of the fifth, T-Bolt starter Jack Lyons (GW) hit Knoble and Andrew Smith (San Francisco) tripled his college teammate home. Smith scored on a throwing miscue by the cut-off man to give Bethesda a 3-0 advantage. Bryan Thomas, the leadoff batter in the fifth inning, reached on an error and moved to third on a single by Nick Cleckler (Jacksonville State). As Trey Cuevas (Southern Mississippi) stepped to the plate and the Thunderbolt manager spoke with his starter, the rain came and the tarp was pulled over the field. Minutes later, the field lights went out and the umpires postponed completion of the game until Tuesday afternoon.

Bethesda Big Train (#1) 1 0 0 0 2 -- 3 7 0
SS-T Thunderbolts (#3) 0 0 0 0 0 -- 0 2 3
WP: LP:
3B: Cleckler (BBT), Smith (BBT);
Attendance: 307
Time: 1 hour and 25 minutes before the rain delay