Bethesda Big Train Summer College Baseball

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

Big Train Roll to Ninth-Straight Win

Thursday, July 10, 2008
by Bryan Oringher
e-mail the Big Train writers at writers@bigtrain.org!
Box Score

The Big Train are so hot right now, they only needed to swing the bats for one inning to extend their winning streak to nine.

Bethesda scored all four of their runs in the third inning, when they also had five of their ten hits, and that was enough for them to hang on to beat the Herndon Braves, 4-2.

The Braves got on the board first in the second inning after back-to-back doubles by Shane Davis and Matt Simone. That was all they could manage against Big Train starter Derek Caldwell (Rider), however, as Caldwell went four strong innings while striking out six, and those two doubles were the only extra-base hits Caldwell allowed.

In the third, the Big Train nearly hit around, as they sent eight batters to the plate. Eli Boike (Michigan State) led off the inning with a single to left, and Zach Kim (San Francisco) followed with a walk. After a passed ball sent Boike to third and Kim to second, Drew Lee (Morehead State) went down swinging before the second and third-best hitters in the Cal Ripken, Sr. League showed why they're hitting .367 and .359, respectively.

Luke Adkins (Mississippi State) doubled to deep center to score both Boike and Kim and put the Big Train up 2-1, before Adkins himself scored on a Danny Stienstra (San Jose State) double. Jordan King (Meridian CC) followed with a single of his own to plate Stienstra, and the Big Train nearly increased their lead to four but King was thrown out at home following a Ryan Mulligan (Saint Mary's CA) single.

The rest of the way, the Big Train relied on their all-of-the-sudden dominant pitching staff. After Caldwell left after four, Scott Schneider (Saint Mary's CA), who was supposed to pitch Wednesday's postponed game, came on to pitch four terrific innings, striking out five while giving up no walks and only two hits and a run to improve to a league-best 5-0 on the season.

After Alex Ferrera homered to lead off the seventh and draw the Braves to within two, the Big Train responded by getting the last nine batters out in order to improve to a league-best 22-5 on the season. In the eighth, Schneider struck out the side swinging.

In the bottom of the ninth, Andrew Smith (Charlotte) came on for his first save of the season, and ended the game with an emphatic strikeout of