Grays fail to climb out of early-inning hole against T-Bolts

By Dominic Varela

The D.C. Grays fell behind early against the Silver Spring - Takoma Thunderbolts on Sunday at the Washington Nationals Youth Academy and never recovered, losing 8-4.

Southpaw Kimani Davis (Xavier) got the start for Grays, while the T-Bolts turned to lefty Evan Rishel (Millersville). Davis struggled with his command across just 1.1 innings of work, yielding two runs in the first before conceding two more in the second and being pulled in favor of right-hander Kai Cummings (Cabrini).

SS-T added two more runs before the end of the second and tacked on another in the fourth, bringing the score to 7-0. Grays' first baseman Evan Bouldin (Delaware State) scored in the bottom of the frame to end the shutout, but another T-Bolt run in the sixth brought the Grays back to a seven-run deficit.

D.C. exhibited some late-game fire, adding two runs in the eighth on a single by Aaron Thomas (Wofford). Later in the inning, a triple to right-center by third baseman Braeden Mondeau (BYU) scored Thomas and cut the lead to four. The Grays' bullpen was strong. Kyle Tyler (Valparaiso) and Stevie Thomas (Catholic) combined to shut out the T-Bolts across the final three frames. However, the eighth-inning offense was to no avail, as the Grays failed to score in the ninth. Despite a team-total 10 hits, D.C. only managed to plate four runs, falling 8-4. Davis was saddled with the loss, dropping his record to 1-3.
​
Patrick Vandenbergh (Georgetown) made his D.C. Gray debut, going hitless in two at-bats.
With the loss, D.C. moves to 5-13 and 9.5 games back in the South division. The Grays look to snap their five-game losing streak on Tuesday against the Metro South County Braves at 7 p.m. at South County High School.