By Scott Zolotorow
The last place D.C. Grays led by pitcher Max Kaplow (George Washington) gave the Big Train their second home loss of the season with a 5-1 win. Kaplow’s best start of the summer stunned the Big Train as he went 8 1/3 innings, while striking out six and allowing only five hits and one run on 130 pitches.
The Grays pitcher allowed just nine base runners in the entire game. The Big Train had 29 and 18 base runners in their two previous games. This was the first time this summer that the Grays were able to defeat Bethesda, who was outscoring D.C. 38-9 in three meetings prior to this game.
The Grays struck with the bats early in the second inning when DH Jay Graham (Dartmouth) roped a double down the left field line to lead off the inning against Big Train starter Taylor Stiles (Maryland). That was followed up by a Desmond Stegall (Grambling State) triple that made the game 1-0. Stegall came in to score just two batters later on an Eric Urry (BYU) sacrifice fly.
The Big Train scored their lone run of the night on an Andrew Brown (San Diego State) RBI single that scored Chris Lewis (Sacramento State) in the bottom of the second. The Big Train stranded two base runners in the inning that saw them get three of their five total hits.
The Grays scored again in the sixth with two outs when Stegall reached on a Taylor Stiles error on an errand throw after a ground ball came back to the Big Train starter. The throw went all the way down the line allowing Stegall to reach third. He scored on a Brandon Chapman (George Washington) RBI single.
The Big Train were set down in order four times during the game, three times by starter Kaplow and only had one inning where multiple runners were on base at the same time. With the loss, the Baltimore Redbirds climb to within four games of the Big Train for the number one overall seed. The playoffs begin July 28th.
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