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Tuesday, July 31

By Bryan Oringher

On a beautiful Tuesday night at Shirley Povich Field, the Maryland Redbirds stunned the Silver Spring-Takoma Thunderbolts in the first round of the Cal Ripken, Sr. League Championship, knocking out the defending champions, 6-4, on the strength of a four-run sixth inning.

In the bottom of the second inning, the Thunderbolts struck first after Gerardo Hernandez (MC-Rockville) led off the inning with a double and later scored after Joe Maca (Catholic) crushed a home run over the right-field fence. However, it didn’t take long for the Redbirds to get on the board. After Gerardo Caceres (Miami Dade CC) led off the third inning with a double and advanced to third on a Tony Jusino (Grossmont JC) ground-out, Caceres scored on a Matt Parker (San Diego State) RBI ground-out. In the top of the fourth, the Redbirds tied the game at two after a Caceres RBI single.

Not long after, the Thunderbolts re-took the lead after a bizarre two-out rally. With two down, Nick Siega-Riz (Wingate) reached on a dropped third strike, and Siega-Riz advanced to third and Joe Fowler (UMBC) to second after a Redbirds’ error. Alex Peguero (Midland) then drove both in with a single to put the Thunderbolts ahead 4-2.

With one-out in the top of the sixth, Ricardo Espinosa (Northwoods) tripled and scored on an error to pull within a run. Later, Jusino drove in two on a double to put the Redbirds ahead 5-4. Gavin Swanson (George Washington) then walked with the bases loaded to push home another run and give the Redbirds the 6-4 lead.

For the Redbirds on the mound, Nate Curd (Towson) pitched a complete game for the victory, giving up 4 runs on eight hits while striking out ten.