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Bethesda,
MD -- "This was the year of the pitcher for the Big Train,"
Bethesda Big Train Manager Derek Hacopian said in announcing
Co-Most Valuable Player Awards for the 2002 Big Train season.
"Byron Binda and Gus Hlebovy anchored an outstanding
2002 Big Train pitching staff. Byron and Gus are very similar as
pitchers. They are not physically big, but both throw hard, have
good sliders, and have a bulldog mentality on the mound. Without
a strong offense this past year, we really needed to have pitchers
like Binda and Hlebovy keep us in games and give us a chance to
win. They did just that, helping the Big Train come out on top in
many close games. They are winners."
Binda,
from Stafford, VA, is a sophomore at Coastal Carolina University.
He led the Griffith League in earned run average (1.16) for the second
year in a row. Binda led the league in wins with a 6-0 record. He
struck out 52 batters in 54 innings of work. Hlebovy, a junior
at Kent State University from Campbell, Ohio, had an ERA of 1.43 and
a record of 6-2 with two saves.
Hacopian
gave Co-Most Outstanding Hitter awards to David B. Hughes
and Derek Hutton. "David B. Hughes was a consistent hitter
for the Big Train allsummer," explained Hacopian. "Hughes is an
aggressive hitter who finds away to get on base." Hughes, a junior
at Indiana University from Elizabethtown,KY, hit .339 this summer,
the highest Griffith League average by a Big Train player in the
four year history of the Bethesda franchise. Hughes had 41 hits
in 35 games.
"Derek
Hutton was a Big Train sparkplug at the top of the order," said
Hacopian. "Hutton had the quickest hands of any Big Train hitter.
It showed in the way the ball jumped off his bat. He has the potential
to play at the next level." Hutton, a sophomore at Florida Atlantic
University from Palm Beach Gardens, FL, hit .327 for the Big Train.
With eight doubles and three triples, Hutton registered a .458 slugging
percentage.
This
is the first time Manager Hacopian has recognized Co-MVPs. In the
Big Train's 1999 inaugural season, Gregg Davies of Olney was named
Big Train MVP. This summer, after graduating from Towson University,
Davies signed with the Baltimore Orioles and played for Cal Ripken's
Aberdeen IronBirds. In 2000, infielder Pat Boran led the league
in hitting and was named the Big Train's MVP. This summer, after
graduating from Princeton University, Boran signed with the Boston
Red Sox and played for the Lowell (MA) Spinners. 2001 MVP Casey
Gilvin returned to the Big Train in 2002 and is now a junior at
the University of Kentucky.
Bethesda
Big Train fans got their money's worth in 2002 with a season full
of exciting games and late inning heroics. If you like classic pitchers'
duels won in the last inning, Povich Field was the place to be in
June and July of 2002. Fifteen of the Big Train's 27 wins were by
a single run, including 11 of the Big Train's 17 wins at home at
Shirley Povich Field. Seven of the seasonšs home victories were
won in the home half of the final inning. The Big Train lost only
four of 21 games at Povich Field where they played before crowds
averaging more than 650 fans per game.
Bethesda
could not seem to carry the Povich Field magic with them on the road.
The team that compiled a masterful 17-4 home field record was a mediocre
10-10 on the road, finishing second to the Arlington Senators in both
the June and July Rounds of the Griffith League. The Senators went
on to Johnstown, PA and won the championship of the All-American Amateur
Baseball Association (AAABA) for the fourth time in five years.
Bethesda
pitchers finished one-two-three in the Clark Griffith League in
earned run average. Byron Binda with an ERA of 1.16, Matt Foster
(Naval Academy) with an ERA of 1.43, and Gus Hlebovy with an ERA
of 1.45 won a combined 16 games for the Big Train. The team's 2.40
ERA led the league as did the team's .963 fielding percentage. Big
Train hitters, with a combined .255 batting average (fourth in league),
scored only 145 runs (fifth in league and 55 less than Arlington)
in 41 games. But with the game on the line at Povich Field, the
Big Train bats delivered night-after-night. Aaron Batlle (Texas/Arlington)
led the team with 18 runs batted in, including two last-inning game
winning hits at Povich Field.
These
awards will be presented at the Fourth Annual Big Train Base Ball
& Auction on Sunday November 17 at the Pooks Hill Marriott in Bethesda.
Several of the volunteers who have made Big Train baseball such
a success will also be honored. Washington Senators All-Star Chuck
Hinton will be the night's headline guest. The auction will include
memorabilia autographed by such sports legends as Hank Aaron, Mia
Hamm, Michael Jordan, and Cal Ripken. Proceeds from the event will
go to improve youth baseball and softball fields. For information
about the event or about the Big Train, log onto www.bigtrain.org
or call 301/983-1006.
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