Story and Photo by Taylor Bretl

The Silver-Spring Takoma Thunderbolts took down the South County Braves on the road Wednesday night, 7-5, snapping their six game losing streak. A four-run fifth inning gave the T-Bolts the lead that they never gave back.

Starting the night on the hill for the Braves was Brady Lencz (Marymount). He retired the first two hitters on six pitches, before third baseman Dillon Can (NJIT) mishandled a soft grounder to the left side of the infield, extending the inning in the T-Bolts favor. The continued inning unraveled with a series of hits. Jonathan McMath (Marymount) grounded a single, followed up by a line drive RBI single to left-center field by John Dunion (West Chester), scoring Brayden Foster (Mt. St. Mary’s).

In the bottom half, the Braves landed runners on first and second as Can stepped up to the dish. A perfectly turned 6-4-3 double play wrapped up the inning, stranding the two runners.

As the game turned to the second inning, Ryan Cuadros (Marymount) began the inning lacing a triple to the fence. Mike Heckman (Shippensburg) sacrificed Cuadros in, extending their lead to 2-0.

Scoring resumed in the bottom of the third, as the Braves bats woke up. Back-to-back singles by AJ Labrusciano (Rider) and Caleb Sanders (Dayton), were piggybacked by Chris Morabito (Bucknell) drawing a walk to load the bases. After a rough start to his evening – a first-inning error followed by grounding into a double play with two runners on – Can turned his headline around. On the first pitch he saw, the right-hander blasted a grand slam over the right-center fence to put the Braves ahead 5-2.

Following a scoreless fourth, the T-Bolts turned the game upside down. Foster and McMath got things going, each reaching base safely, setting the stage for Josh Erd (Frederick CC) with one out. Erd rolled over a softly hit grounder to pitcher Jack McDonald (Radford) on what would seem to be an easy 1-3 put out. McDonald, however, sailed his throw over the head of Jack Pokorak (UNC Greensboro), allowing both Foster and McMath to cross home, while Erd took third. Trailing now by one, Cuadros dug into the box ready to pounce. On a 1-1 count, the right-hander elevated a fastball well over the center field fence, giving the T-Bolts a 6-5 lead.

Strong outings from T-Bolts' Jay Wandell (Towson) and Braves' Lars Greenlee (Rosemont) resulted in scoreless sixth and seventh innings.

The final run of the contest came in the eighth inning off a solo home run by Erd to extend the T-Bolts lead to 7-5. Holding onto that lead, the T-Bolts’ six game losing streak came to an end.

The Silver-Spring Takoma Thunderbolts (7-13) travel back home to Montgomery Blair Stadium in a matchup against the Alexandria Aces (14-6). The South County Braves (9-11) will also be traveling, as they head to Criswell Field to take on the Gaithersburg Giants (13-7).