Thunderbolts Seek To Water Down The Scorching Hot Cropdusters Tonight on the Road

OLNEY, JUNE 19—The Silver Spring-Takoma Thunderbolts (3-9) have a tough task in front of them tonight at First Responder Field. The TBolts will take on the Olney Cropdusters (9-5), who are 2-0 against Silver Spring-Takoma this season. The Cropdusters defeated the TBolts 25-1 on June 4 at Blair, and handed them a 6-4 defeat at Olney on June 13.

Griffin Puvel (Sr., Rider) provided a walk-off walk in the Thunderbolts’ 3-2 walk-off win against Gaithersburg on Wednesday. However, the TBolts followed it up with a tough 8-4 loss to the DC Grays last night. In their two-game homestand, infielder Jona Acosta (So., North Florida) went 3-6, which included a key 2 RBI single last night. Outfielder Gabriel Pegues (So., Lynchburg) went 4-8, and pieced together a triple against DC.

Infielder Jona Acosta went a combined 3-6 with 2 RBIs against the Giants and Grays these past two days.

Left-handed-pitcher Zach Bortner (So., Frederick CC) had a nice outing against Olney on June 13, and will look to carve out the Cropdusters tonight once more. In his first start at First Responder Field, Bortner pitched four innings, gave up five walks, and struck out three Cropdusters.

The Cropdusters have been dominating at a ridiculous rate since June 12. Olney has won seven of their last eight games, and are currently riding a three-game win streak. The Cropdusters recently dominated against the Alexandria Aces, Bethesda Big Train, and Metro SoCo Braves, respectively. Last night, the Cropdusters defeated the Braves 16-4.

Olney catcher Landon Springmeyer (Sr., Northern Kentucky) has been pulverizing pitching for the Cropdusters this season; the righty leads the Ripken League with 18 RBIs and four home runs. Springmeyer hit a harmful three-run homer last night against the Braves to spike his league leading numbers.

LHP Zach Bortner gets his second start of the summer after his debut against Olney on June 13.

Crucially, the Cropdusters have a knack for crushing grand slams against the TBolts. Cade Walter (So., Jacksonville) cranked a grand slam on June 4, and Patrick Godzan (Jr., West Chester) procured one on June 13. As you can probably guess, Olney leads the Ripken League in team home runs with 13. If Bortner and company want to piece together a win, they need to place the ball wisely tonight under the Olney sun.

First pitch at First Responder Field is scheduled for 6 P.M. Peter Kelly and Patrick Moran will broadcast tonight’s contest on the TBolts’ YouTube Channel.