FREDERICKSON'S 14 Ks + DIETZ'S TWO DOUBLES = VICTORY
Box Score

The thing about baseball that you gotta love is that you can stink the joint out one night and know that tomorrow is a new day with a fresh start. Monday night in College Park everything that could go wrong did go wrong for the Big Train. Tuesday night at Povich Field against the same team things were better, much better. Even the weather cooperated. As game time approached, radar indicated a storm heading straight for Povich Field. It split-off at the last minute and just missed us. Evan Frederickson (Virginia Tech) had his 90+ MPH fastball working. He breezed through five scoreless innings with twelve strikeouts. Only five of the first 18 Bomber batters hit the ball in play -- a flyout, two groundouts, an error, and a single. Meanwhile, the Big Train bats were working as well. In the second inning, Luke Adkins (Southern Mississippi) and Chris Taylor (UNC-Charlotte) singled and Josh Dietz (Bowling Green) doubled them home. We received two gift runs in the third without benefit of a hit on four walks and a hit batsman. Two more walks in the fourth, a single by Preston Pehrson (Texas), and an amazing sprint home from second by Nick Cleckler (Jacksonville State) barely before the tag resulted in a 5-0 lead. In the sixth inning, it turned ugly for awhile as Frederickson gave up hits to the first two batters, let loose with a few wild pitches, and fell victim to a throwing error to allow the Bombers back in the game at 5-3 before reliever Chris Cullen (Michigan State) put out the fire. Frederickson did strike out two more batters before he exited for a total of 14 Ks out of the 17 outs he recorded. Cullen pitched two more scoreless innings. In the bottom of the eighth, Bethesda added an insurance run on a lead-off double by Dietz and an RBI single by Cory Lane (UNC-Charlotte). Austin Hinkle (Coastal Carolina) blanked the Bombers in the ninth for the save.


College Park Bombers (19-19) 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 -- 3 7 0

Bethesda Big Train (24-12) 0 2 2 1 0 0 0 1 x -- 6 8 4


WP: Frederickson (3-1)
LP: Leblow (2-5)
Save: Hinkle
2B: Dietz (two) (BBT), Jowers (CPB)
Attendance: 177


Big Train Notes: With the win Tuesday night, the Big Train extended our lead to one-and-one-half games over the Rockville Express with four regular season games to play. The Orioles crushed the Thunderbolts to keep pace with Bethesda and gain ground on the idle Express. The Express travel to Bachman Park on Wednesday to face the Orioles. An Orioles win will tie them with the Express. An Express win would set-up a showdown with the Big Train Thursday afternoon at 5 p.m. at Knights Field with the regular season championship and The Montgomery Cup at stake. The top two teams avoid having to play first round playoff games next Monday afternoon. The top two seeds get to wait to face the winners of the afternoon games on Monday night. The red hot Express have won 8 of their last 10 games and 10 of their last 12. The Big Train have won 7 of our last ten games, 9 of our last 12. The Orioles are 4-6 in their last ten games. The Express swept the Orioles in a Saturday doubleheader.