"Bolts Are Hot!"; Thunderbolts Bring Fireworks to Criswell in 15-2 Takedown
GAITHERSBURG, JULY 3—The Silver Spring-Takoma Thunderbolts (7-19) celebrated Independence Day early last night. After two tough losses to the Gaithersburg Giants (12-15) this past week, the TBolts marched into Criswell Automotive Field with a newfound fire. Silver Spring-Takoma shot out of a cannon to start this game, and showed Gaithersburg no mercy in their flaming 15-2 victory.
Silver Spring-Takoma took control early with an electric offensive outburst. Gabe Pegues (Lynchburg) was brushed back on a leadoff walk, and Matthew Kim (Hampden-Sydney) launched a single to left. Later, Caleb Sturtevant (Millersville) tattooed a three-run homer to deep left-center field. This tank gave Sturtevant his second home run of the season, which is tied for the team lead. Not only this, but his three-run blast came in his second game back from an arm injury that kept him sidelined for 10 games.
“Obviously, yesterday, kind of a little rough. But, you know, I was just getting my bearings back,” Sturtevant reflected on going hitless in his first game back from injury on Thursday. “Today, I was kind of seeing the ball well, and just trying to get back out there.”
Point Park pitcher Griffin Roussell made his fourth start for the Thunderbolts this season. Gaithersburg loaded the bases in the bottom of the first, but the TBolts were able to escape trouble. Roussell forced a lazy flyout to right, and followed it up with an inning-ending groundout. This yielded an eventual five inning outing for Roussell, where the righty only surrendered five Giants hits.
“It all comes down to our offense,” Roussell replied when asked how he kept his composure on the mound. “When it’s 3-0 after the first, that bases load situation means nothing when your offense is performing as well as they were.”
In the top of the second, the TBolts took their power to a new level. The foundation of the frenzy was formed when Pegues smoked an RBI double to deep center field. Kim came through with a center-field sac fly, and a Giants E6 plated Pegues. Sturtevant continued the slugfest with a rugged RBI double down the left field line. Since this ball rolled deep into foul territory, it allowed Sam Camacho (Clarion) to soar from first to home.
With Sturtevant on second base, Griffin Puvel (Rider) pulverized his first home run of the summer. As the sun began to set in Gaithersburg, the TBolts lead now glowed to 9-0. Puvel sent his dinger in the same left-center direction as Sturtevant’s, and they both crossed home to expand the second inning lead.
“It felt good, you know. I had to get the first one out of the way,” Puvel said after the game. But, the whole team was just swinging it tonight. So it’s good to see that. Bolts are hot!”
Colin Gibbs (Deleware) had a Grand Old Fourth inning on defense; the shortstop helped the TBolts turn an extraterrestrial 6-3 triple play. With runners on first and second, center-fielder Dylan Anderson (Rutgers) scorched a pitch right into the glove of Gibbs. In gold glove fashion, Gibbs stepped on second base for the force, and fired to first baseman Nolan Kutney (UMBC) before Miguel Leon (Maryland) had a chance to return. This is the first triple play produced by the TBolts defense this season.
Sturtevant kept his hot hitting alive with a two-out RBI single in the sixth inning. After a Puvel single and Gibbs walk, Marco Pulizzi (Millersville) made his presence known to the Gaithersburg defense. The righty sent a fly ball to left, and Breydan Ruiz-Weiss (Yale) failed to catch the final out. In total, Pulizzi plated three Thunderbolts runs; the E7 supplied a 13-2 TBolts lead in the sixth.
Matthew Kim (Hampden-Sydney) and Sam Camacho both poured it on for the Thunderbolts in the seventh inning (since this game began at 7:30, the seventh inning was serving as the final one). Kim clobbered an RBI double down the left field line, while Camacho cashed in with a left-field single.
Aidan Watts (Rochester) brought voracious voltage for the TBolts on the mound; in his two innings of relief, the 6’4” righty was nearly flawless. Watts allowed zero hits, and got Gaithersburg to groundout three consecutive times to end the game.
In total, the TBolts erupted for 17 hits, with eight of them going for extra-bases. Caleb Sturtevant was a stellar 3-3 with a home run, double, two walks and five RBIs. Matthew Kim and Griffin Puvel—who had the two-run homer in the second—also pieced together three-hit days for the Thunderbolts. In his first five games with the team, Marco Pulizzi had been just 2-14 at the plate. However, the right-fielder went 2-4 with two doubles last night in Gaithersburg.
Pulizzi told me afterward, “The last couple games obviously didn’t go well. So, I’ve been getting to the field early, getting a lot of work in, figuring out what was going wrong. I think it’s starting to click at the right time now.”
On defense, the TBolts did not commit any errors for the first time since Tuesday. Along with poised pitching from Roussell and Watts, the TBolts racked up 10 assists and 21 putouts. As before-mentioned, they also turned a thrilling triple play back in the fourth.
Silver Spring-Takoma is off today, but will take this victory into Sunday where they will take on the Alexandria Aces at Blair Stadium. They will then play the Cropdusters on Monday before Wednesday’s inter-league All-Star game in Bethesda. This summer, the TBolts have two players representing Silver Spring-Takoma as All-Stars; a special All-Star feature article will be released shortly.