PEHRSON HOME RUN GAINS BIG TRAIN SUNDAY SPLIT Box Scores

After five hours of battling that started in the heat and humidity of Sunday afternoon and ended in the cool breezes late Sunday night, Preston Pehrson (Texas)'s line-drive home run over the right field fence gained the Bethesda Big Train a doubleheader split with the Silver Spring-Takoma Thunderbolts at Blair Stadium. The T'bolts teed-off on Big Train starter Adam Redd (Virginia Tech) in the first game and romped to a 12-5 victory. Eight of the first nine T'Bolt batters reached base, seven by hits, and the Thunderbolts were up 6-1 after the first inning. Cory Lane (UNC-Charlotte) singled to lead-off the second game and was doubled home by Matt Long (Santa Clara). Three Thunderbolt errors in the second inning handed the Big Train a 2-0 lead, but not for long. In the bottom of the second, the first two T'Bolt batters singled and Corey Greene (Coppin State) homered to give Silver Spring a 3-2 lead. Big Train starting pitcher Jimmy Saris (Georgetown) held the T'Bolts in check into the fifth inning to allow Bethesda to pull even. In the top of the fifth, Lane stroked a ball down the rightfield line for what looked like a routine double. But Lane left the batter's box with third base on his mind and scored the tying run on Nick Cleckler (Jacksonville State)'s sacrifice fly to center. Reliever Austin Hinkle (Coastal Carolina) put out a fire in the bottom of the fifth. Adam Plummer (Pitt-Johnstown) walked to leadoff the sixth, was sacrificed to second, and scored on a single by Brian Dozier (Southern Mississippi) to give the Big Train a 4-3 lead. Hinkle gave up a lead-off double to Greene in the sixth but then got a groundout and a strikeout before a fielding error allowed the tying run to score. With one out in the top of the seventh and last inning, Pehrson hit the home run that turned out to be the game winner. Big Train reliever Chris Cullen (Michigan State) came in in the bottom of the seventh to preserve the win.


SS-T Thunderbolts (10-17) 6 0 0 2 2 2 0 -- 12 15 2
Bethesda Big Train (19-10) 1 0 0 2 2 0 0 -- 5 8 1


WP: Laws (1-2)
LP: Redd (2-1)
3B: Sheridan (SS-T), Mogollon (SS-T), Popp (BBT)
2B: Lenhard (SS-T), Toth (SS-T), Long (BBT)
Attendance: 273
Time: 2 hours, 12 minutes


Bethesda Big Train (20-10) 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 -- 5 9 2
SS-T Thunderbolts (10-18) 0 3 0 0 0 1 0 -- 4 7 5


WP:Hinkle (3-1)
LP: Petersen (2-1)
Save: Cullen (2)
HR: Greene (SS-T), Pehrson (BBT)
3B: Lane (BBT)
2B: Long (BBT), Greene (SS-T)
Time: 2 hours, 18 minutes


Big Train Notes: You knew it had to happen, but that didn't make it pretty to watch. Through our first twenty-eight games, the Big Train had lost only one game by more than two runs and that was by only three. That changed with Sunday's 12-5 loss to Silver Spring... Cory Lane's college teammate Chris Taylor just laughed when some expressed amazement with Lane's fifth inning triple. "He just doesn't think double," explained Taylor. Lane was second in the nation with 12 triples in his sophomore season at UNC-Charlotte... With the Big Train victory in the nightcap Sunday, the Thunderbolts have been eliminated from a chance to win the annual Gazette newspapers-sponsored Montgomery Cup competition among the three Montgomery County teams. Bethesda with a record of 8-4 has a one game lead over the 6-4 Rockville Express. The Big Train and Express play each other Tuesday and Thursday. The Thunderbolts are 3-9 in this year's competition.