Bethesda Big Train Summer College Baseball

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Big Train Hang on in Herndon, 8-5

Monday, July 14, 2008
by Bryan Oringher
e-mail the Big Train writers at writers@bigtrain.org!
Box Score

After getting embarrassed in their own home Friday and Saturday night by Youse's Orioles, the Big Train were eager to get the taste of losing out of their mouths.

On Monday, they did just that, and continued their dominance of just about every team in the league besides the Orioles, using their bats to carry them to an 8-5 win over the Herndon Braves.

With the win, the Big Train improved to 4-0 against the Braves on the year, and 22-2 against everyone besides the Orioles in the Cal Ripken, Sr. League.
The Big Train got on the board first in the second inning after Danny Stienstra (San Jose State) walked, Michael Cipolla (Saint Mary's CA) singled, and Dylan Tonneson (California) walked to load the bases before Zach Kim (San Francisco) drove Stienstra in with an RBI groundout. The Big Train were unable to do more damage, however, as Ben Jones (Auburn) and Seth Williams (Michigan State) both struck out swinging.

In the third, the Braves struck back after John Lynch (St. Peters) led off the inning with a double, advanced to third on a wild pitch, and then scored on a Michael Cheatham (Virginia Commonwealth) RBI groundout.

With the game tied at 1 going into the fifth, the Big Train finally broke out of their offensive lull in a big way. Jones led off the inning with a single and then stole second with one down. After a Drew Lee (Morehead State) single pushed Jones to third, Jordan King (Meridian CC) followed with a single of his own to score Jones and advance Lee to third.

Then Luke Adkins (Mississippi State) decided: enough with the singles, let's just hit the ball out of the park.

Adkins homered to deep center for the big three-run bomb Earl Weaver built his teams for, and chased Herndon starter Derek Anderson (Trinity) from the game with the Big Train now leading 5-1.

In the sixth, Zach Kim helped the Big Train add an insurance run by essentially infuriating the pitcher. Kim apparently did something to get pegged by the pitch, then went to second on a throwing error on the pitcher's pick-off attempt, and then third with a straight steal. Finally, Drew Lee rewarded Kim for all his running with an RBI single to left that put the Big Train up five.

The Braves slowly made it a ballgame again by adding runs in the sixth and seventh innings, but it wasn't enough with the gem the Big Train have waiting in the back of the bullpen.

It also wasn't enough because Seth Williams unloaded an absolute moonshot to left-center to score Ben Jones and himself and put the Big Train ahead 8-3 in the top of the eighth.

With the Big Train up 8-4, Matt Hiserman (San Francisco) came on with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the eighth. Hiserman surrendered a rare single to allow a run that was charged to Billy Murphy (Rutgers), but then got Sean Lamont (Georgetown) to line out and strand the bases loaded.

In the ninth, Hiserman continued to mow-em-down, as he got back-to-back strikeouts to end the game and get the Big Train back in the win column, picking up his league-leading ninth save in the process.

Andrew Smith (Charlotte) earned the win for Bethesda after a terrific start that saw him go 5 innings, allow only 2 hits and one run, and strike out seven. Smith improved to 5-0 on the season, tying teammate Scott Schneider (Saint Mary's CA) for the best record in the league.