Kassouf went deep for the second straight game.
BETHESDA - The Thunderbolts are still winless on the road this year, losing to the league leading Bethesda Big Train last night at Shirley Povich Field.
After scheduled starter Spencer Patten (Towson) accidentally ended up in Aberdeen instead of Bethesda, reliever Nate Cudney (Belmont Abbey) was thrust in to the starter role. Through three innings, Cudney was doing fine, only allowing one run on one hit, and the Thunderbolts had the lead on a three-run home run by Big Dan Kassouf (Belmont Abbey), his second of the year.
Kassouf is now 5-8 in his past two games after starting out the season 1-17.
"It's just a little bit of getting my timing down, getting comfortable back in the box," he said. "I was just trying to square something up, I don't really know what pitch it was, I was just swinging at it."
Cudney ran into trouble in the fourth inning. Four straight hits by Mike Celenza (Salisbury), Danny Stienstra (Michigan State), Jarrod Parks (Mississippi State) and Luke Adkins (Mississippi State) led to three runs by the Big Train, giving them the 4-3 lead.
The 'Bolts were able to come back, however, as Jacob Darr (Mount St. Mary's) hit his first home run of the year in the top of the fifth to tie it up. Curtis Wilson (NW Shoales CC), the next batter, walked and got to third with no outs on an error by the pitcher, but strikeouts by Devin Rivers (NW Shoales CC) and Kyle Maldonado (New Orleans) ended the rally.
A T-Bolt error in the bottom of the fifth scored Connor Bernatz (San Francisco) and gave the Big Train the lead for good. Cudney pitched better than his final line showed: five innings, eight hits, and four earned runs
The 'Bolts had a chance to tie it up again in the bottom of the sixth. After Matt Hillsinger (Radford) walked and Casey Allison (Wingate) singled, Darr stepped up to the plate, fresh off his home run in the previous at-bat. Instead of swinging away, Darr laid down a perfect bunt, advancing both runners.
"At that point we were in a 3-1 ball game, and we needed to get a guy over," manager Jason Walck said. "I left it up to him to do what he wanted to do, and he ended up coming up big for us."
Wilson, the next batter, walked to load the bases, but Rivers struck out and Mark Hill (George Mason) flew out to right to end the threat.
"We've been talking about it for eight games now," Walck said. "That we've got to do a better job with guys on third and less than two outs. These guys just aren't focusing in, they've got the ability to [drive runners in], but we just haven't been doing that."
Stephen "Money" Miller (Salisbury) continued his spectacular year out of relief, throwing three innings and allowing only one unearned run on one hit and no walks. Miller has not allowed an earned run in 8.1 innings of work this year.
"I was just throwing strikes," Miller said. "The sliders were working, I was getting ahead in the count, and I was able to put the hitters on the defensive end of things, so I was just throwing strikes and letting my defense play."
The 'Bolts play tonight at College Park against the Bombers in a doubleheader. The first game is scheduled for 5 P.M.
Leave a comment