Big Train Winning Streak Snapped By Gaithersburg

The Bethesda Big Train (17-6) lost for the first time in more than a week Sunday night as the Gaithersburg Giants (12-12) came to Bethesda swinging hot bats.

Gaithersburg would strike first when Carson Jones (Virginia Tech) ripped an RBI single in the top of the second to put the Giants ahead 1-0. The Big Train responded in the bottom half of the inning, however, as Keith Torres III (Sacramento State) ripped a two-run single through the left side to score Tate Soderstrom (Arizona) and Darius Foster (San Francisco) to put the Big Train on top 2-1.

After a slow start to the season, Torres has heated up of late as his RBI single extended his hitting streak to six straight games. When asked about Torres’ current hot streak, Big Train asociate head coach Galvin Morris said, “Pitchers are always going to be ahead of the hitters in this league because of the wood bats. Now he’s gotten acclimated to the wood bats, and he’s starting to swing it well.”

In the top of the third Gaithersburg would tie the score after Cade Doughty (LSU) scored on an error. Things wouldn’t stay tied for long as in the bottom half of the inning Kobe Kato (Arizona) scored on a Matt Thomas (William & Mary) single that put Bethesda ahead 3-2.

It was in the next two innings that the Train started to fall off the tracks. In both the top of the fourth Gaithersburg struck for three runs. Doughty drove in Jones on a single to tie the game, and Harris Williams (San Francisco) gave the Giants the lead a 5-3 lead with a two-run triple. The Giants would again strike for three runs in the top of the fifth as Buddy Mrowka (Harvard) cleared the bases with a three-run triple giving the Giants a commanding 8-3 lead.

Both teams would pick up runs in the seventh as the Giants scored on a sacrifice fly by Stephen Rice (Salisbury) and Bethesda scored on a ground ball by Cade Hunter (Virginia Tech), but that would be the rest of the scoring as the Giants won the ball-game by a final score of 9-4.

With the loss, Bethesda fell to 3-2 on the year against the Giants and 8-4 on their home field. After the game coach Morris said the team both showed fight and played with good effort but that they need to “Get a little smarter with the little things,” to get back to winning ways.

Coach Morris also noted the best thing about baseball is “you can’t glow on a loss, you’ve got to move on because you have to play again tomorrow.”

The Big Train will indeed have a chance to get back on track tomorrow as they make their second trip to Silver Spring in the last five days as they’ll take on the Thunderbolts at Montgomery Blair Stadium Monday night.