LANE HUSTLES HOME FOR 4-3 VICTORY WEDNESDAY Box Score

Put this win in the hustle column, Cory Lane-style. A walk, a double by Ian Christie (Johns Hopkins), a hit batsman, some hard hit balls in the infield, and the visiting Redbirds took a 3-0 lead over the hometown Big Train in the top of the first inning. Outstanding base running by Lane (UNC-Charlotte) was the key as the Big Train battled back Wednesday night for a 4-3 Bethesda victory at Povich Field. In the bottom of the first, leadoff batter Lane reached on an error, moved to second on a balk, and to third on a single. His great speed allowed him to score on a shallow sacrifice fly by Preston Pehrson (Texas). Josh Dietz (Bowling Green) hit a home run in the second inning, his third in the last three home dates at Povich Field, to narrow the gap to 3-2. Big Train reliever Chris Cullen (Michigan State) kept the Bethesda in the game with four innings of scoreless relief. The Big Train tied the score at three in the bottom of the seventh when Chris Taylor (UNC-Charlotte) led off with a single up the middle, advanced on a sacrifice bunt and a Lane single, and scored on a single by Nick Cleckler (Jacksonville State). Things looked bleak in the top of the ninth when Big Train reliever Brian Anderson (San Francisco) walked the leadoff batter and allowed him to advance to second on a wild pitch. But Anderson escaped unscathed as he got the next batter to popup an attempted sacrifice bunt and retired the last two Redbird batters. With one out in the bottom of the ninth, Lane, the night's superhero, singled. Cleckler walked. As the Redbirds unsuccessfully attempted to turn an inning ending double play, Lane dazzled the crowd as he scampered home with the winning run.


Maryland Redbirds (8-17) 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -- 3 4 3
Bethesda Big Train (17-9) 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 -- 4 9 0


WP: Anderson (2-1)
LP: Howell (1-2)
HR: Dietz (BBT)
2B: Christie (MR)
Attendance: 406
Time: 2 hours and 15 minutes (20 delayed start because of rain)


Big Train Notes: Talk about hard-core fans! Despite a pre-game shower, 406 Big Train fans showed up on Wednesday night. Here's how hard core: for the first time in Big Train history that we can remember, the Big Train raffle took in more dollars than we had fans at the ballpark -- $420 to 406 fans. The long-arms were selling briskly... We had a group of six children from the Chernobyl area in the Ukraine hosted by the Cedar Lane Unitarian Church... Big Train founder John Ourisman was in the house, having given a pre-game talk to members of the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Chamber of Commerce about the community leadership lessons learned in our enterprise... The absolutely amazing Lemonade Shaking Guy from Camden Yards and RFK entertained the fans and sold a lot of lemonade... Kids received packs of baseball cards coutesy of Hall of Fame Cards... The game was sponsored by Bethesda Partners.