Nick Vickerson Home Run Picture

Nick Vickerson Home Run, a photo by dbadair on Flickr.

Awesome picture I found on Flickr.

6-21 Minor League Update

Eli Boike went 2-4 with a run for Vancouver. They won 4-1.
Danny Stienstra went 0-3 with a walk for Batavia. They lost 2-0.
Cody Allen pitched 3.2 perfect innings against Danny Stienstra and the Muckdogs. He recoreded 6 strikeouts.
Jarrod Parks was 3-4 with 2 home runs against the Casper Ghosts. Orem won 23-1.
Nick Vickerson went (so far 1-4) with an 2 RBI and a run against the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes.

The Big Train is back on track

After Bethesda's hitting slump, they finally got off to a good start against Herndon Sunday, scoring a first inning run against Herndon's Chris Franzese. Ryan Garton made his Big Train debut on Sunday, allowing only 1 run in 4 innings. Bethesda added a couple runs in the 3rd on 2 hits by Mike Aldrete, who hit a double, and Adam Barry who scored Aldrete on a single and later scored. Herndon scored only 1 run in the 4th and 7th. Only 1 run was earned because of a fielders choice in the 7th inning. Mike Frank and Victor Diaz also made Big Train pitching debuts, combining to pitch the 5,6,7, and 8th innings. Mike Frank ran into trouble with the bases loaded in the 7th, but Victor Diaz shut the Braves down until Matt Bowman came on to finish the game in the 9th. The top of the order came through offensively for Bethesda as Michael Bass, Mike Aldrete, Adam Barry, and Hunter Renfroe combined for 8 hits, 4 runs, 6 RBI, and 3 extra base hits.
In the previous few games, the Big Train were saving all of their hits for yesterday when they slaughtered Alexandria. Bethesda got 18 hits, hitting against all 5 Aces pitchers. Alexandria lead after the first inning 1-0, but starter Cameron Love was solid from there on until he was relieved in the 8th inning. He recorded 9 strikeouts. Almost everyone hit for Bethesda and they had 5 pinch hitters/fielders, including Victor Diaz who played LF adding to the hits with a RBI single in the 8th. Hunter Renfroe and Alex Hudak both homered yesterday at 4 mile run park. Renfroe hit a 3 run homer while Hudak hit a solo homer to lead off the 3rd inning. John Barrett (Frostburg State) hit a homer for Alexandria in the 8th inning off of Martin Agosta who pitched the 8th with 2 strikeouts. Mike Aldrete pitched the 9th inning 3 up, 3 down on strikes. The Big Train look like a new team in the last 2 games, they will face the worst pitching team, the Thunderbolts in a doubleheader Wednesday at 5 and 7:30. Silver Spring's offense is lead by league leader in batting average Bill Gerstenslager who had 4 hits, including a homerun and 2 doubles against Bethesda last time we played them.

Smaller Train

Its hard to come up with a clever name when both teams are trains. But the Big Train weren't so big on Saturday as they got destroyed 12-4. The Express were hitting from the first batter of the game as they scored 2 in the 1st, 4 in the 2nd, 1 in the 3rd, and 2 more in the 4th inning. And at the end of the 4th, Bethesda was trailing 8-0. Patrick Keane was roughed up in the only 1.2 innings he pitched as he allowed 4 earned runs. Josh Schneider came in to get the final out of the 2nd, but was beaten up for 3 runs in the other 2 innings he pitched allowing a homerun to left field off the bat of Carlos Saade in the 3rd inning. Rockville went scoreless in the 5th, just to score 4 more in the 6th off of Bethesda's Tucker Donahue (Senior, Stetson). Martin Agosta and Mike Aldrete cleaned up the last 1/3 of the game allowing 0 runs and only one hit. Bethesda's offense continues to struggle but Michael Bass played well Saturday batting 2-5 with a double, stolen base, and 2 RBI. Sophomore Hunter Renfroe from Mississippi State debuted Saturday. He went 0-4, but every out was in play and hit hard (VIDEO). Remarkably, the Big Train lead the league in hits so far this season. Rockville's top 1/3 of their lineup was stellar, combining for 8 hits, 6 runs, 5 RBI, and 2 walks. What seemed like and easy win turned into a blowout. Bethesda plays Herndon later today to try to snap their worst losing streak of the season! 2 games!

Big Train 9-2

The Bethesda Big Train are currently in 2nd place after losing today to the Southern Maryland Nationals who are now (11-0). Bethesda has only 3 hits in the last 3 games and are 1-2 in those games. The first of those games, vs the Orioles, the Orioles pitcher Blake Geiger (Richmond) no-hit the Big Train. A hit was given to Brenden Kalfus on the play but it was clearly an error by the catcher. Geiger deserved a no-hitter. The Orioles scored one run in that game (Click for video). The Orioles were held to only 4 hits by Big Train pitcher Matt Bowman (Princeton) who recorded 10 strikeouts in 8 innings.
Yesterdays game against Vienna was pushed back an hour due to pouring rain, then they played five innings until it poured again. The Big Train won 2-1 stranding a runner on 3rd base. Here are some videos from the game, ( HERE , HERE, AND HERE ). Kelly Secrest recorded 7 strikeouts in 4 innings and allowing 0 earned runs. The run was scored on one of Bethesda's 3 errors. The River Dogs also got 3 errors. And all 6 of them came in the first 3 innings of play. A dropped fly ball to center field was scored as a hit for Bethesda so Vienna only got 2 credited errors.
Tonight, 2 more errors were made vs. the SM Nationals made by Mason Morioka and Brennan Middleton. Both errors caused the only 2 runs of the game for the Nationals. Eliott Waterman and David Wayne Russo combined to get 7 strikeouts and only 4 hits. Michael Bass got a 2 out triple but was unable to score. The Big Train will try to catch up with the Nationals after they play the Rockville (2-9)

Mississippi State Walk Off

After losing game 1 to Florida 11-1, the Bulldogs had to win Saturday morning. Down 3-2 going into the bottom of the 9th, Jarrod Parks lead off. He singled down the left field line knocking reliever Nick Maronde out of the game. Steven Rodriguez came on to pitch against another former Big Train player Nick Vickerson. Rodriguez hadnt allowed an earned run in 20 innings until Vickerson crushed the ball into the left-center field bleachers. The play was later featured on Sports Center. The Bulldogs won 4-3 and have to win today at 1 to advance. The game is on ESPN.

Mike Aldrete - Baseball History

Mike Aldrete, not just the Big Trains starting shortstop but Mike Aldrete a player for the 1996 World Champion New York Yankees. Thats right. Mike Aldretes dad played in the MLB. He played 10 seasons in the major leagues with various teams. His best season was in 1987 with the Giants when he hit .325 with 51 RBIs, 50 runs, 116 hits and 18 doubles. He is now currently an assistant hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals in the MLB.

Big Train win over Thunderbolts in extras

The Big Train played their first extra inning and away game of the season in Silver Spring to face the Thunderbolts. The Big Train jumped out to an early lead against T-Bolts pitcher Chris Acker scoring 2 runs in the 1st inning. The T-Bolts later regained those 2 runs with one each in the 2nd and 4th to tie the game. Bethesda had a rally going in the 5th to score 4 runs on 5 hits to give Bethesda a 4 run lead. But the T-Bolts matched them again in the bottom of the 5th also scoring 4 runs, knocking Bethesda's starting pitcher Patrick Keane (SMC) out of the game. Silver Spring's Troy Handza added a walk in that 5th inning to his already impressive night as he was 2-3 with a HR, 2 runs, and 2 walks. The Big Train took the lead again in the 6th as Tim Quiery scored Adam Berry after his double with one out. But the T-Bolts tied it up again in the bottom of the inning. And nobody scored after that until the 11th inning. Josh Schneider and Mike Aldrete pitched 6.2 combined innings allowing 0 earned runs. Matt Grieb's RBI single scoring Josh Leemhuis won the game in 11 innings. All 3 runners in the inning came after 2 outs. Key Players in the game were Drew Farber and Tucker Tobin who both had 4 hits in the game. Bethesda combined to get 17 hits in the game. The T-Bolts got 12 hits. The game lasted 3 hours and 26 minutes. Pictures from the game are HERE. Video from the game is HERE.

Opener vs. Redbirds

New pitcher from NC-Wilmington Kelly Secrest made an impressive first start for the Big Train earlier today pitching 6 full innings allowing only 3 hits and allowing no runs. He also recored 7 strikeouts over the six innings. David Wayne Russo returning this season, pitched 3 innings to finish the game also allowing no runs and get a strikeout to shutout Baltimore. All of the hits came from the top of the Redbirds line-up (Winter, Jensen (2), Gardner). Josh Leemhuis walked twice and got 2 hits for Bethesda. Drew Farber knocked in 2 RBI's.



Redbirds #11 Cory Jensen tags up at 1st

Shoutout to Cory Jensen and his family! Thanks for reading my blog!

View more pictures on flickr HERE

Pre-season game

A few Big Train players and alot of Braves players vs. Industrial League Senators. I dont know the score. Or any of the players. Except for http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Schourek a former major leaguer who played for the Senators #32. I got his autograph after the game. Todays game has been cancelled. Next game on Friday.