Bethesda Big Train Summer College Baseball

301.983.1006
faninfo@bigtrain.org
P. O. Box 30306
Bethesda, MD 20824

Big Train Win 3rd Straight, Improve to 4-0 vs. T-Bolts

Wednesday, July 2, 2008
by Reid Kellam
e-mail the Big Train writers at writers@bigtrain.org!
Box Score



On a hot and humid evening at Blair Stadium, the Bethesda Big Train continued their dominance of the Silver Spring-Takoma Thunderbolts, defeating them 9-1 as the Thunderbolts remain winless in four tries against the Big Train this season.

Both the Big Train and the Thunderbolts managed to score in the second inning. Ryan Wilkins (Lipscomb) was able to bring home Dylan Tonneson (California) with an RBI single to put the Big Train on top. In the bottom half of the inning Big Train Starter Justin Wright (Virginia Tech) got into his only jam of the evening. Thunderbolts' cleanup hitter, Michael Speciale, led off the inning with a triple to center, and then scored on a fielders choice. With two outs in the inning, Heath Weatherford doubled to center, but was stranded there as Wright got Nick Rivers to pop out to end the inning.

The Big Train took the lead back for good in the third inning after Drew Lee (Morehead State) came across to score on a Michael Cipolla (Saint Mary's CA) single.

Thunderbolts starter, Ed Bach, was chased by the Big Train in the fourth after he allowed four runs on three hits in the inning. With the bases loaded, Jordan King (Meridian CC) drove in the first run with a sacrifice fly that scored Eli Boike (Michigan State) from third. With only one out, Cipolla roped a triple over the centerfielder's head that scored both Zack Kim (San Francisco) and Drew Lee (Morehead State). Dylan Tonneson drove in the last run of the inning with a double that scored Cipolla from third.

The floodgates completely opened in the sixth, when the Big Train scored three runs off Thunderbolts' reliever Jeremy Zarou. King and Luke Adkins (Mississippi State) led off the inning with singles, and moved into scoring position after a fielders choice. Zarou then had trouble finding the strike zone, as he walked Tonneson to load the bases with only one out. Then, on four straight pitches, Zarou walked Ryan Mulligan (Saint Mary's) to score a run. A sacrifice fly by Wilkins and an infield single by Boike gave the Big Train two more runs, and a 9-1 lead.

Justin Wright picked up the win, going six strong innings, allowing only one run on five hits and a walk while striking out four. Wright improved to 2-0 with the win, and has allowed only 15 hits in 23 innings of work this season. Kris Brown (Rider) came on to pitch the final three innings to earn his first save of the season. Brown was dominant as he allowed only one hit and struck out three, and the Big Train cruised to a huge victory.

Game Notes: With tonight's game victory over Silver Spring, the Big Train clinched at least a tie for the 2008 Montgomery Cup sponsored by The Gazette. At the halfway point in the CRSL schedule Bethesda is 7-1, Rockville is 2-5, and Silver Spring is 2-5...Todd Fitzgerald, normally a relief pitcher, got a plate appearance tonight and drew a walk. However, you could tell he wasn't used to it, as Fitzgerald got picked off first base almost instantaneously. While he did manage to stretch the pickle out to almost a minute, Fitzgerald was retired and his patient at-bat erased.