Thunderbolts Wake up to New Life in Waldorf; Will Face Sens with Semis at Stake
WALDORF, JULY 24—The Silver Spring-Takoma Thunderbolts have fought to see another day. After a rough end to their regular season, the TBolts kicked things into turbo to take down the Gaithersburg Giants in a 6-5 play-in victory.
Tonight, the TBolts will quickly regroup to face the Southern Maryland Senators in a wild card matchup. The winner of this game will face the one-seeded Olney Cropdusters tomorrow at First Responder Field in a three-game semi-final series.
While the Sens have played at North Point High School this summer, they will use Regency Furniture Stadium—the ballpark they played at all of last season—as their stomping grounds tonight. This change of scenery will be much needed, as the TBolts have had trouble putting away the Sens all summer.
The Thunderbolts have gone up by at least three runs in all four of their games against Southern Maryland this season. However, the Sens have staked a comeback to win by exactly one run in every matchup.
In both of their duels at North Point High School, the Sens secured walk-off hits. The most recent heartbreaker came in a 7-6 loss this past Monday. Sens right fielder Kai Lwin (Florida Atlantic) crushed a second inning grand slam, and then lashed a walkoff infield single. Lwin is 4-9 with five RBIs and two walks against the Thunderbolts this summer.
As of late, Matthew Kim (Hampden-Sydney) has been a spunky spark-plug for the Thunderbolts. The second baseman went 2-4 with an RBI triple in last night’s inspiring win over Gaithersburg. On Monday, Kim thrashed a three-run homer against the Senators for his first slam of the summer.
Outfielder Gabe Pegues went 2-2 with two walks, and smoked a leadoff homer last night. Importantly, Pegues has also seen success against Southern Maryland; the righty is 6-16 with seven RBIs, two walks, and three extra-base hits against the Senators this summer.
In their play-in victory, the Thunderbolts saw poised pitching from Jacob Seek, Wade Hartrick and EJ Youngling. Tonight, Emilio Rodriguez (Clarion) gets his turn to run the table. Although he is a newer addition to the team, Rodriguez has some of the highest volume pitching production on the team. When he lands his curveball and finagles his fastball, E-Rod is as dangerous as anyone in the Ripken League.
The Baltimore native already has two starts under his belt against Southern Maryland this summer. On June 27, Rodriguez worked five innings, allowed two hits, and struck out nine Senators; E-Rod’s nine K’s were the most thrown in a single outing by a TBolt this season. On July 16, he threw four and two-third innings, allowed three hits, and struck out five.
Besides pitching, the Thunderbolts saw success last night because the scoring was spread throughout the game. In the regular season, the TBolts had a knack for bursting out to an early lead and losing it in a flash. Last night, the defense never got complacent because Silver Spring-Takoma slowly grew their lead. If the TBolts can treat this game as a marathon rather than a sprint, they will have no trouble booking a trip to Olney.
First pitch is scheduled for 4:30 P.M. tonight at Regency Furniture Stadium. For those who can’t make the trek to Waldorf, tune into the Thunderbolts YouTube channel for an exciting broadcast.