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Big Train Beats Orioles By A Nose
By David Ireland
On Wednesday night at Bachman Park the Big Train eeked out a win against Youse's Maryland Orioles, 3-2. Behind the strong pitching performance of Jimmy Saris (Georgetown) and three relievers, the Big Train climbed back to the .500 mark.
Saris, who didn't give up a run in his first start of the summer last week against the Redbirds, only gave up one run in five innings of work against the Orioles. He allowed only one hit, walked none and struck out four.
Saris had only one blemish in the fourth inning. After retiring the first nine batters he faced in order he was tagged with a run after Chris Jackson (Virginia Commonwealth) led off the inning with a triple and scored on a Alex Bucholz (Delaware) sacrifice fly to make the score 2-1, Big Train.
Earlier, the Big Train had scored two runs in the top half of the inning when Clay Whittemore (Jacksonville State) drew a one out walk, Travis Owens (Bowling Green) followed with a base hit and next Pat Minogue (Nothern Illinois) walked to load the bases. Evan Friedland (Michigan State) then came up and bounced a grounder to the Orioles third baseman who booted the ball and allowed Whittemore to score the first run of the ballgame. Chris Duffy (Central Florida) came up next and was promptly hit by a pitch to force the second run to the plate.
In the top of the fifth the Big Train got a much needed big hit to give them a 3-1 lead. Andrew Foster (Bowling Green) led off the inning with a walk and then Big Train Catcher Chance Harst (Southern Mississippi) belted a long line drive over the head of the Orioles Center Fielder for an RBI triple.
From there on out it was the Big Train grasping to that third run as three Big Train relievers came in to help preserve the win. Over the next four innings Big Train relievers allowed only one unearned run and were able to escape a few jams to shut the door on the Orioles offense.
In the bottom of the ninth with the Big Train clinging to the one run lead, Collin Cargill (Southern Mississippi) came in a got a gutsy save.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Big Train 3 3 1 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0
Orioles 2 5 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0
W: Saris (2-0)
L: Zoltak (0-1)
S: Cargill (2)
Box Score
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