TBolts Fall 8–4 to Braves Despite Proficient Day from Pegues
LORTON, JUNE 25—The Silver Spring Takoma Thunderbolts (5-14) battled the Metro SoCo Braves (8-10) for the first time this season. A breathtaking sunset could be seen at South County High School, and there was no shortage of beautiful plays made last night. However, the Thunderbolts did not get the pictureesque outcome they were searching for in their 8-4 defeat to Metro SoCo.
Lefty Zach Bortner (So., Frederick CC) made his fourth appearance on the mound for the TBolts in 2026. While he notched four strikeouts on the day, Bortner ultimately suffered his second loss of the season. In his second win for Metro SoCo, Reed Little (Jr., Hampden Sydney) twirled four innings, rendered four walks, and struck out five TBolts.
Julian Lemper-Turkisher (So., Wagner) gave Metro SoCo an early 1-0 lead in the first after turning on a shallow RBI single to left-center field. Bortner recovered by punching out back-to-back Braves, and made a brilliant defensive play. For the final out, Bortner fielded a comebacker that knocked his glove off of his hand; the southpaw still fired it to first for the final out.
Metro SoCo secured a 4-0 lead in the second inning thanks to RBI doubles from Robert Kelly (Jr., Monmouth) and Nadav Machlin (So., Paris JC). Sam Camacho Jr. (So., Clarion) stopped the bleeding with a nice pick at third to gun down Lemper-Turkisher. Sequentially, Bortner located his fourth K on the top right corner of the zone to end the three-run inning.
In the top of the third, Gabriel Pegues (So., Lynchburg) traveled around the world for the TBolts. Pegues pieced a single to right field, stole his tenth base of the season, and came home via a Braves wild pitch.
In the bottom of the third, James Robinson (So., Dickinson) recorded a serendipitous RBI for the Braves. Robinson checked his swing, but the barrel made enough contact to send it over the right side of the infield for a single. Metro SoCo managed to score one more from an RBI single by Matt Wright (Sr., Ferrum). After Wright’s left-field hit scored Lemper-Turkisher, Griffin Puvel (Sr., Rider) launched a throw to catcher Kai Schmelzer (Fr., Gulf Coast State), who tagged out a speedy Collin Lott (So., Northern State) sprinting for home.
In the top of the fifth, a gorgeous orange and pink sky loomed in left field. Gabriel Pegues took in the scene, and punished a 1-0 pitch into the left-center field stratosphere. This was Pegues’ second home run of the summer, and he joins Trent Lopez (So., Cornell) as the only Thunderbolts to have multiple tank shots in 2026. Pegues’s solo homer cut the Braves’ lead down to 7-2.
Franco Pistella (So., Oberlin) had a stellar three-inning relief outing for Silver Spring-Takoma. The lefty allowed just two hits, and locked in for five strikeouts. This included an emphatic strikeout to get Lemper-Turkisher swinging, which ended the fifth inning. Thunderbolts players and coaches were all pumped up for Pistella, who had his first runless outing this summer.
While it won’t show up in the statsheet, Kai Schmellzer made excellent blocks behind the plate to save a few wild pitches in the seventh. What will show up in the stats is Puvel’s second outfield assist to Schmelzer. Almost identically to the third inning, Metro SoCo got greedy after a left-field RBI single by Kelly, and Puvel made them pay with his terrific arm to gun down Christopher Krese Jr. (Sr., Stevens Tech) at home.
Kelly’s seventh inning single put the Braves up by four, and Metro SoCo never looked back. The Thunderbolts grounded out, lined out, flew out twice, and struck out twice to end the game. Right-hander Ben Smallwood (Sr., Marymount) and southpaw Evan NIx (So., Virginia Military Institute) both notched solid outings to close things out. The relievers combined to allow two TBolt hits in the final two innings.
After claiming their 8-4 victory, Metro SoCo secured their eighth win of the season. For Silver Spring-Takoma, they dropped to 5-14, and sit at the bottom of the North division standings. In total, the TBolts had seven hits, seven walks, and struck out 12. The Braves broke through for 12 hits, five walks, and punched out 11 TBolts. Both teams committed an error apiece.
Gabriel Pegues went 2-4 last night, and his fifth inning homer was the only RBI hit for the Thunderbolts all game. After the game, Patrick Moran asked Pegues how it felt to hit that moonshot. He shared, “It felt good. I was just trying to get a good pitch to hit, and I was just happy that I could get some runs on the board for the guys.”
The TBolts head to First Responder Field tonight to take on the Cropdusters, and will look to salvage their first win against Olney this season.