Grays Get Best of Bolts in 8-4 Outing at Blair
SILVER SPRING, JUNE 18—The Silver Spring-Takoma Thunderbolts (3-9) dueled with the DC Grays (4-9) for the second time this season. The Thunderbolts were looking for back-to-back home wins after their walk-off win at Blair on Wednesday against the Gaithersburg Giants. DC came into this contest on a four-game losing streak, but were ultimately able to break it after their 8-4 win last night.
Grays DH Joey Chitla (Fr., William and Mary) charged the TBolts with early electricity in the first inning. Chitla hit a soft RBI single, and then stole his seventh base of the season. After reaching third off a groundout, Chitla made a bold move that few players dare to make. As the ball was being thrown back to the mound, Chitla took a humungous lead off third, and made a break for the plate. He easily beat out the throw, and stole home to put the Grays up 2-0.
More chaos came about in the second, as a walk and E4 quickly put DC runners on the corners. Catcher Mason Kelleher (So., Frostburg St.) contained the chaos after gunning down a runner heading for second. However, DC proceeded to take a 3-0 lead off a wild pitch.
Christian Dray (So., Richmond), who worked a wondrous performance against DC on June 5, made another start last night. While Dray experienced turmoil in the first and second, he bounced back nicely with a 1-2-3 third inning; every out in the third came from a groundout. In his four innings of work, Dray struck out four Grays (three of them looking), allowed four hits, and issued two walks.
In the third, Jona Acosta (So., North Florida) accounted for the TBolts’ first two runs of the game after bashing a ball off the mound for a center-field single. Acosta then raced all the way to third after a Grays error on the throw home.
Despite a supply of singles by both teams, there was no scoring in the fourth and fifth innings. In the sixth, the Grays drew four walks and were hit by a pitch. In total, they added two more runs with a sacrifice fly and RBI walk.
Trailing 5-2 in the sixth, Aydin Prell (So., Dickinson) pulled a rocket RBI double to right field to plate another TBolt. However, DC kept crushing with a single and RBI double of their own to take a commanding 8-3 lead at the end of seven. Joey King (So., St. Olaf) recorded an RBI groundout to cut the lead in half, but the damage was beyond repair.
Thunderbolts reliever Josh Erd (Sr., East Stroudsberg) had an amazing outing for Silver Spring-Takoma. While Erd has been a hitter his whole career, he recently converted to become a pitcher only. With this change in play has also come a change in appearance; Erd recently chopped off his hair to sport a bald look, and humorously advocates for his teammates to do the same. In his two innings of relief last night, Erd struck out six Grays batters (two of them looking) and allowed zero hits.
“I’ve been working a lot every day with Brock [Hunter] and [Ryan] Mariani,” Erd told Thunderbolts reporter Patrick Moran last night. “They’ve been helping me a lot with the development side and the mental game. I’ve had a lot of reps with them, been playing catch with them, and they’re helping.”
Ultimately, the TBolts tumbled to their ninth loss of the summer, and now sit at the bottom of the North division standings. They will take on the Olney Cropdusters tonight on the road, with first pitch coming at 6 p.m.