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T'BOLTS UPSET # 1 & # 2 SEEDS TO ADVANCE TO CHAMPIONSHIP
Box Score
On Wednesday afternoon at Povich Field, the fifth seeded Silver Spring-Takoma Thunderbolts (14-26) pulled off two upsets to force a winner-take-all championship game with the Rockville Express on Thursday August 3 at 7 p.m. at Blair Stadium. During the regular season, the Thunderbolts played the Big Train and the Express 16 games. The T'Bolts won three. Wednesday they played their Montgomery County rivals two games and won two.
Here's the story on Wednesday's games by CRSL executive director Alex Thompson:
The five-seed Silver Spring-Takoma Thunderbolts continued their improbable run through the 2006 Cal Ripken, Sr. Collegiate Baseball League Championship Series Wednesday when they battled the sun, heat, and top two seeds in the tournament to force a deciding second game of the Championship Finals Thursday night at 7 pm at Blair Stadium.
The Thunderbolts cruised against the top-seeded Bethesda Big Train in a game that began under 100-plus degree conditions. The Big Train struck first when Preston Pehrson (Texas) singled home Steven Leach (Jacksonville State), who had reached on a walk and advanced to second on a Matt Long (Santa Clara) single.
The Silver Spring pitching staff would settle in from there, however, allowing just five hits and no runs the rest of the way. Jared Yecker (St. John’s) relieved starter Matt Montgomery (Montgomery College) in the third inning and tossed six innings of shutout ball. He scattered three hits and did not walk anyone, while striking out five Big Train batters to earn the victory.
Meanwhile, the Thunderbolts bats got hot in the sixth inning. With the score tied at one, Nate Toth (Radford) singled to lead off the inning. Tim Park (MC-Rockville) followed with an infield hit. Nick Popp (Belmont Abbey) plated a run on a sacrifice fly and Corey Greene (Coppin State) followed with another base hit. Joe Maca (Catholic) then doubled to center, scoring Park and Mike Sheridan (William & Mary) followed that with a double of his own to score Greene. Sheridan finished the day a home-run short of the cycle, with two runs scored and two RBI. Greene also had three hits and scored twice in the ballgame.
Two more Thunderbolts runs in each of the eighth and ninth innings ended Bethesda’s tournament run.
In the Championship Game, the Thunderbolts fell behind the two-seed Rockville Express, 3-0, when Ivor Hodgson (Mt. St. Mary’s) walked to start the fifth inning, moved to second on a groundout, stole third, and scored on an Eric Oliver (Orange Coast) sacrifice fly. Ben Orloff, who was hit by a pitch after Hodgson moved to second, eventually came around to score on an error. The Express added another run in the sixth on another Silver Spring error.
The Thunderbolts refused to quit, however. Two Rockville errors in the seventh inning and a Tyrone Wethers (New Orleans) sacrifice fly tied the game at 3-3. The next inning, the Thunderbolts put a man on base after a single and a fielder’s choice. Nick Popp then blasted a home run to left field to give the Thunderbolts a 5-3 lead that they never relinquished. Matt Peterson (Salisbury), who pitched 3.2 innings of gutsy relief to close out the game for the Thunderbolts, earned the victory.
Rockville would have wrapped up the Championship with a win tonight. Instead, the Thunderbolts return to their home turf Thursday night with a chance to cap off their magical run through the CRSCBL Championship Series.
SS-T Thunderbolts (3-1) 001 003 022 – 8 15 0
Bethesda Big Train (1-2) 100 000 000 – 1 7 1
W: Yecker L: Saris
2B: SS-T – Sheridan, Popp, Maca; BT – Leach
3B: SS-T – Sheridan
SS-T Thunderbolts (4-1) 000 000 320 – 5 7 3
Rockville Express (3-1) 000 021 000 – 3 2 3
W: Peterson L: Gross
HR: SS-T – Popp.
For game summaries and box scores of all 10 CRSL playoff games, log onto:
http://www.ripkensrcollegebaseball.org/
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