Grays’ Late Rally Falls Short Against T-Bolts

​6/6/14

By: Anna Dunlavey

What started as a promising evening for the DC Grays ended in a loss in their first road game of the summer.  The team rallied to close a large gap, but in the end the Silver Spring-Takoma Thunderbolts won 11-9.

The Grays (1-2) started strong in the first inning. After David Kimbrough (Delaware State) singled and Trae Sweeting (Georgia State) was hit by a pitch, Joe Tietjen(UNC-Asheville) drove in Kimbrough for the first run of the game. Tietjen stole second, and after the second baseman missed the catcher’s throw, Sweeting scored the Grays’ second run. Austen Maggin (Lafayette) reached on an error while Tietjen scored run number three. In the bottom of the inning, Justin Drechsel (Johns Hopkins) got three quick outs in his first start of the season.

The T-Bolts (1-2) were able to tie things up in the bottom of the second. Tietjen and Maggin scored again in the top of the third, but when the T-Bolts responded with three runs for a 6-5 lead in the bottom of the inning, Arnold Capute (Williams) replaced Drechsel on the mound. One more unearned run occurred before Capute shut down the inning.

A bases loaded triple by the T-Bolts’ Jason Baytop Jr. in the fourth increased the lead to 9-3. Baytop Jr. also scored before Jay Graham (Dartmouth) relieved Capute.​

The Grays were then able to calm the T-Bolts offensive storm, and in the top of the eighth inning they began a rally of their own. Kimbrough drove in Austin Sanders (Alabama-Huntsville), and Drew Reid (Harvard) scored on a Sweeting single. Kimbrough scored on an error, but that was the last run the Grays were able to score, leaving the game at 11-9.  Aaron Tovsky (Davidson) gave up one unearned run in the seventh and James Lengal (BYU) pitched the scoreless eighth. Drechsel was tagged with the loss.

The Grays will be back home at the Nationals Youth Academy tomorrow to play Bethesda Big Train at 1:00pm. As of Friday night, Big Train (3-0) is one of three teams in the Ripken League without a loss.