Gaithersburg Giants sweep doubleheader over Grays

​Andrew Houghton 6/30/13

The Grays lost both ends of a doubleheader to the Gaithersburg Giants at Hoy Field Sunday, dropping their record to 8-11 on the season.  The first game was a close affair, with the Giants scoring one run in the first on a leadoff home run by Collin Shaw (Texas) and the Grays matching it in the third when right fielder Eric Ramsey (Wake Forest) tripled with one out and scored on a sac fly by shortstop DJ Miller (Delaware State).  The Grays also blew an opportunity that inning when center fielder Desmond Stegall (Grambling State) was thrown out stealing the pitch before Ramsey’s triple.  This missed chance came back to haunt them in the sixth when the Giants scored two runs in the top of the sixth on a double by Brandon Grove (Catonsville CC).  The Grays then loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the inning but couldn’t score.  With time running short (doubleheaders in the Ripken league are two games of seven innings each) the Grays put the tying run on base in the bottom of the seventh when Ramsey doubled and scored on Miller’s single, but a flyout to center and a groundout to shortstop ended the game.  Pitcher Enrique Oquendo (McLennan CC), making his second start for the Grays, pitched well, striking out four and giving up three runs in six innings, but it wasn’t enough as the Grays took the loss, 3-2.

With the first game in the books, the Grays started the second half of the doubleheader with high hopes.  However, these were quickly crushed as the Giants jumped on starter Michael Daley (Kean University) for five runs in the top of the first, with Giants number one hitter Collin Shaw hitting a leadoff home run to go with his bomb from the first game and catcher Danny Freshley (Shenandoah University) adding a two-run double.  The Grays got one back in the bottom of the inning with Miller scoring on a single by designated hitter Greg Olenski (Maryland), but the Giants added single runs in both the second and the third off reliever Sherman Graves (Savannah State), with Shaw singling twice, scoring one run and driving in the other.  Graves settled down after that, holding the Giants scoring for the rest of the game, but the Grays couldn’t come all the way back after the disastrous first inning, falling 7-3.

The Grays play next on Monday, July 1st at 5:00 pm against the Baltimore Redbirds as a make-up game at Hoy Field.