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Big Train Open Title Defense with 12-3 Win over Giants
The Big Train celebrate during their 12-3 Opening Day win over the Giants. Photo by Brandon Lauchnor.
By Michael Stamatos
On a beautiful Saturday night at Shirley Povich Field, the reigning champs of the Cal Ripken Sr. Collegiate Baseball League picked up right where they left off.
The Bethesda Big Train built an early lead and didn’t look back, smacking the Gaithersburg Giants around en route to a 12-3 Opening Day victory.
Matt Westley (Virginia Tech) set the tone in the bottom of the first. With one out and runners at first and second, Westley unloaded on a fastball, driving it far over the fence in left for a 3-0 Big Train lead.
Westley wasn’t the only Bethesda hitter who was on Giants starter Hayden Kalisz (Alabama). The right-hander got hit hard, getting pulled in the second after allowing another two runs. Mike Costello (Millersville) would get the Giants out of the second, but not before Bethesda scored a sixth run from Cole Constable (Maryland) sprinting home in a perfectly executed delayed double steal with Jordan Crosland (Maryland).
The Big Train continued to add on runs in the third. Singles from Landon Franklin (Kentucky) and Jaden Bastian (Jacksonville), along with Jackson Giacone (Cal State Fullerton) getting hit by a pitch, loaded the bases, and then three consecutive walks brought Bethesda’s lead up to nine. A sacrifice fly to center from Davin Whitaker (East Carolina) gave the Big Train another run before the Giants would get out of the inning on a lineout to third, trailing by 10.
Meanwhile, Bethesda starting pitcher Evan Smith (Maryland) was excellent. The lefty kept Giants hitters off balance beautifully in his four innings of work, picking up five strikeouts and walking none. Smith sat down the first nine batters that he faced before Gaithersburg finally found some offense in the fourth, manufacturing a run off of singles from Danny Sheeler (Salisbury), Hunter Stevens (Millersville), and Casey Gibbs (Longwood).
The Giants started to pick away at Bethesda’s lead in the 5th and 6th innings with more small ball. A walk from Mike Burton (Virginia Wesleyan) and singles from Tanner Vicendese (East Stroudsburg) and Sheeler gave Gaithersburg their second run of the game, and they added on a third run to make it 10-3 in the sixth on a walk, wild pitch , and an RBI single up the middle from Jayden Brown (Eastern Kentucky).
Ashton Chronister (Xavier) provided some solid innings in relief for the Giants. He entered the game in the fourth and kept hitters off balance, striking out four in three innings of work and generating weak contact. Bethesda finally got to him in the sixth, where a combination of infield singles, passed balls, and errors gave the Big Train two runs back to grow their lead to 12-3.
The rest of the game was dominated by relievers. Gaithersburg’s Tanner Sanderoff (Hofstra) and Bethesda’s Max Martzolf (FAU) both gave two clean innings of relief, striking out nine combined batters while allowing no hits to end the game with a score of 12-3, Big Train.
Both teams are off Sunday and will be back in action on Monday. The Giants will stay on the road to take on the Silver Spring-Takoma Thunderbolts, while the Big Train face the Cropdusters at home. Both games will start at 7 p.m.
