Cropdusters Complete Summer Sweep; Thunderbolts Fall 12-8 at Blair
SILVER SPRING, JULY 19—Last night, the Olney Cropdusters (24-11) put the cherry on top to what has been a relentless regular season against the Silver Spring-Takoma Thunderbolts (11-25). In a tight contest, the Cropdusters rallied in the ninth to hand the TBolts a 12-8 loss. This improves Olney’s record to a perfect 8-0 over Silver Spring-Takoma this summer.
Griffin Roussell (Point Park) made his sixth start of the season for the Thunderbolts. The righty twirled three innings, allowed four hits, four walks, four earned runs, and struck out two.
The Thunderbolts offense struck in the first inning with a long right-center field double by first baseman Connor Frickey (Babson). Frickey eventually moved to third on a passed ball, and was brought home by a Cropdusters error; Marco Pulizzi (Millersville) hit a lazy fly to right, and Maximus Wearing (Rutgers) lost it off his glove towards the foul line. Catcher Mason Kelleher (Frostburg St.) followed in Frickey’s pursuit with a long double to right-center to score two more runs.
In the bottom of the third, the Thunderbolts struck with three walks to load the bases. With two outs, second baseman Matthew Kim (Hampden-Sydney) dumped a single to left to drive in two TBolts runs.
Roussell quickly issued a walk and hit-by-pitch to start the fourth inning. After three innings of work, the righty was pulled for right-hander Noah Tofan (Sul Ross State). In a 3-2 count, Tofan tangled Wearing with a strikeout on a low fastball. However, a wild pitch brought home David Hernandez (New Mexico) to cut the lead to 5-3. Playing shortstop for the first time this season, Sam Camacho Jr. (Clarion) recorded a 6-3 RBI putout. For the final out of the fourth, Marco Pulizzi (Millersville) made a sliding catch to conceal the chaos.
In the top of the fifth, Olney piled on two more runs with a TBolts passed ball and RBI single by Zakye Hawkins (New Mexico). One inning later, Camacho connected with first baseman Connor Frickey (Babson) for an electric 6-3 putout. The hype was short lived, as Hernandez sizzled a single up the middle to put Olney up 7-5. With things starting to unravel, TBolts reliever Wade Hartrick (Chicago) hit the hill for his eleventh appearance of the season. A wild pitch brought home another Cropdusters run, but Hartrick notched a K to end the fifth.
After his awesome catch, Pulizzi peeled a right-field single in the sixth to score a timely TBolts run. Kelleher then clobbered a single of his own to right, and the Olney lead was trimmed to 8-7. Third baseman Nolan Kutney (UMBC) joined the party with a right-field triple in the bottom of the seventh. Crucially, Kim cashed in for his third RBI with a sac fly to plate Kutney.
In the top of the eighth, TBolts reliever Vince Anzedei (Dominican) made his fifth appearance on the mound this summer. The righty recorded two quick K’s by rifling a fastball by Scott and making Owen McNeal (Central Alabama) reach with a breaking ball. To end the inning, catcher Mason Kelleher snapped a throw to Frickey for a poised pickoff.
For the first time this summer, the Thunderbolts looked to be a real threat to this dangerous Cropdusters team. With the score tied at 8-8, TBolts pitcher Branden Brown (Frostburg St.)—who had missed over a month due to injury—hit the hill for the first time since June 7. Unfortunately, Brown and the Bolts got battered by the Olney offense.
To lead off the ninth, the Cropdusters loaded the bases by drawing two walks and getting plunked by a pitch. To make up for his previous error, Maximus Wearing walloped an RBI single to left, and eventually scored on another wild pitch. Sammy Berman (Maryland) piled it on with a 2 RBI single to right, and the Cropdusters took a frantic four-run lead.
Kim drew a walk to lead off the bottom half, but the Thunderbolts grounded into a game-ending double play. A Blair Stadium crowd of 241 watched as Olney celebrated their eighth straight victory over Silver Spring-Takoma.
Despite the loss, this was by far the Thunderbolts’ best all-around performance against Olney this summer. In total, the TBolts had 11 hits, drew eight walks, and struck out 13 Cropdusters. While these stats were stellar, the Thunderbolts also threw three costly wild pitches and frantically hit five Olney batters. The Cropdusters simply cashed in during crunch-time, and came away with a sneaky 12-8 victory.
Silver Spring-Takoma is back in action tonight to face the Southern Maryland Senators in their final road matchup of the regular season.