NEWS

Big Train catcher Luke Vaughn tallied three hits in Bethesda's win over the Braves. Photo by Brandon Lauchnor.

By Michael Stamatos

Every year when the playoffs come around, the Bethesda Big Train start to roll.

The Big Train, league champions in three of the last four seasons in the Cal Ripken Sr. League, finished the 2024 regular season playing some of their best baseball.

They were 8-2 in their last 10 games heading into their play-in game against the Metro South County Braves, a team that they were 3-1 against in the regular season. Their hot streak continued on Saturday night. Bethesda handled the Braves, 16-4, advancing to the semifinals and a matchup with the Gaithersburg Giants.

Bethesda opened up scoring in the bottom of the second. After the first two batters both flew out to center, the Big Train started a furious two-out rally. A walk and a single put runners on the corners for Luke Vaughn (Alabama), who ripped a double down the third-base line to give Bethesda a 2-0 lead. Jordan Crosland (Maryland) followed that up with an RBI single of his own, and then Justin Nadeau (Florida) snuck one over the fence in right, bringing the lead to 5-0.

They grew their lead in the fourth. Vaughn picked up a leadoff single, and Crosland got hit by a pitch, putting runners at first and second with no outs. A fielder’s choice put runners at the corners with one out, and Andrew Williamson (Central Florida) brought the run in with a groundout to second. Emilio Gonzalez (Florida Atlantic) then singled, giving Bethesda their seventh run of the game.

Two more came in the fifth for Bethesda without a single hit. The first three batters in the inning walked, bringing up Crosland with the bases loaded. He drove a ball out to deep right that was tracked down, allowing the runners on second and third to both tag up and advance. Two batters later, Williamson would loft a ball out to left with the bases loaded and one out, deep enough for the runner at third to tag for the second time in the inning.

Joey Wimpelberg (Central Florida) was outstanding on the mound for the Big Train. He kept a tough Braves lineup scoreless through five innings, generating lots of whiffs and soft contact. Dillon Can (New Jersey Institute of Tech) got Metro South County on the board in the sixth with an absolute bomb over the center field fence, but Wimpelberg worked around the solo shot to complete six strong frames.

Bethesda would continue to keep their foot on the gas. Vaughn picked up his third RBI of the night in the sixth with an opposite-field single to make it 10-1, and RBIs from Gonzalez and Matthew Westley (Virginia Tech) on a groundout and a single in the seventh put Bethesda a run away from ending things on the league’s run rule.

The Braves fought back in the eighth. With runners on first and second, Katcher Halligan (Houston Christian) smacked an RBI double down the right field line. A wild pitch brought in another run, and Halligan came around to score on a fielder’s choice groundout, making it 12-4.

However, the Big Train wanted to go home. A walk and single put runners on the corners in the bottom of the eighth, and after a RBI single from Nadeau, Williamson walked up to the plate with a chance to walk it off. Williamson, who finished the regular season with a .462 average, was 0-for-4 to this point, so it felt like he was due, and he was. He blasted a no-doubt homer over the fence, continuing his incredible season, and giving the Big Train the 16-4 win.

“He’s been unbelievable all year,” Vaughn said of Williamson. “Everybody was kind of expecting it - he had a quiet day there - but at the end, he always does something cool, and nothing better than a freaking bomb to right center to walk it off.”

The Big Train advance to take on the Gaithersburg Giants in a best-of-three semifinal series, starting Sunday in Gaithersburg.