By Taylor Bretl

The Bethesda Big Train defeated the Gaithersburg Giants, 10-3, Tuesday night to advance to the Cal Ripken Sr. League Championship Series. They are looking to win their 11th championship in franchise history – and their second in a row.

Starting off the contest, the Giants swung away early. Leadoff hitter Aiden Robbins (Seton Hall) roped a fastball into the right-center gap, stretching safely into second base. Three pitches later, Brady Powell (Radford) grooved a single, bringing Robbins home for an early 1-0 lead.

Jumping in on the action, the Big Train responded in the bottom half, taking a 2-1 lead. A leadoff walk by Justin Nadeau (Florida), followed by a double from Andrew Williamson (Central Florida), started the inning off strong. Back-to-back at bats from Emilio Gonzalez (Florida Atlantic) and Davin Whitaker (East Carolina) drove them both in.

An inning later, Bowman was hit by a pitch and stole second. Nadeau singled him home, extending the Big Train's lead to 3-1.

In the bottom of the third, Bowman’s production continued, hitting a sacrifice fly to left field, bringing Whitaker home to enlarge the lead to 4-1.

In the fourth, the consistent scoring paused for the inning, but the strong pitching continued. Big Train starting pitcher Sam Mitchell (Alabama) ended his night with five innings pitched, allowing just one run.

After the scoreless fourth, the Big Train bats woke back up in the fifth, scoring two more runs — a Christopher Diaz (Tulane) sacrifice fly to left followed by a single from Bowman — growing their lead to five runs.

Continuous runs piled on for Bethesda as they entered the ninth inning up 10-1. In an attempt at a miraculous comeback, the Giants put up two runs in quick fashion, cutting their deficit to seven. With the rain coming down and one out away, right-hander Brandon Cassedy (Christopher Newport) closed the gate, earning the Big Train their 15th straight championship series appearance, dating back to 2009.

They will face off against the Southern Maryland Senators in a best of three series. Game 1 kicks off at Shirley Povich Field on Wednesday, July 24th at 7:00 p.m.