Submitted photo Nate Lewis, shown above broadcasting a DeMatha High School football game, is the new voice of the Bethesda Big Train in the Cal Ripken Sr. Collegiate Baseball League. Lewis, a part-time broadcaster since 1994, does a live webcast of one Big Train game per week, primarily so parents of out-of-town players can catch the action.

Fortunately for Jan Knoble, the Dons broadcast their games on the Internet, so she can follow her son's college career.

"That really takes the pain away," Jan Knoble said.

But she doesn't get to see much of Jonnie over the summer, either. For the last two summers, the speedy centerfielder has jetted to the opposite coast to play for the Bethesda Big Train of the Cal Ripken Sr. Collegiate Baseball League.

The Knoble family isn't alone. This year's Big Train roster includes players from 15 U.S. states (as well as Washington, D.C.), very few of which are an easy drive from Shirley Povich Field. So this off-season, Bethesda president Bruce Adams and general manager Alex Thompson sat down to try and come up with a way of bringing Big Train baseball to its scattered fan base.

"We'd sort of always talked within our own organization of being able to provide a service through the Web where out-of-towners can keep in touch with the action live," Thompson said. "Whether it was live radio or one of those play-by-play text boxes you see on ESPN.com."

The solution was right in front of them. Nate Lewis, the founder and president of U.S. Sports Radio, had been broadcasting a handful of Clark Griffith League games for the past five years. Lewis did a lot of Big Train games during that time, including last summer's playoff run. Adams and Thompson approached him about a more regular gig at Povich Field.

"The idea was that when they moved to the Cal Sr. League, the logistics worked out for an exclusive deal with them," Lewis said. "They approached me about a weekly game."

That's how, on June 10, Jan Knoble and a lot of other out-of-town Big Train fans got to sit down at their computers and listen to Lewis' call of opening night. Lewis has done two other Big Train games since then, one each weekend, and quickly developed a base of loyal listeners.

"We had a little trouble last year keeping up," said Kim Carson, who tunes in from Monroe, La, for her son, Drew. "It's a great tool and a great service that we have for those of us who can't be at every game."

The weekly broadcast is available through both the Big Train site, www.bigtrain.org, and Lewis' own site, ussportsradio.com. And it seems the parents aren't the only ones listening in. Lewis estimates that his live broadcasts draw between 100 to 300 listeners who can't make it to that night's game. A recording of each game is then archived, and Lewis said that 3,000 to 4,000 additional people log on to listen to the webcast afterwards.

"We do this primarily for the parents of the players ... but it's there for anyone to listen," Lewis said. "We don't normally get that many for a lot of our broadcasts, but it's because the Big Train are doing a great job of promoting it. I know people are interested, because every time I do something wrong, I get an e-mail about it."

Lewis, a personal trainer by day, started U.S. Sports Radio in 1994. It was a way of scratching an itch that began in high school, when he interned for the Virginia Squires of the American Basketball Association. The Squires' play-by-play man, former "This Week in Baseball" announcer Warner Fusselle, would sometimes have the young Lewis as a guest color announcer, and encouraged him to keep at it.

Lewis started with high-school football in his home base of Northern Virginia. He later joined forces with the streaming audio company, broadcastmonsters.com, and now does football and basketball for DeMatha High School and broadcasts occasional games for Bowie State University.

"I'm doing something I've loved doing since I was a child," Lewis said. "I did what I think a lot of kids do, watch baseball on TV, doing play-by-play with the sound down. And, it seems as though people are glad we're providing the service."

The Knobles in Utah and the Carsons in Louisiana are certainly glad to have it. Both chipped in, along with other families, to help the Big Train pay for Lewis' services, and the team also lined up five corporate sponsors for the webcasts.

The service hasn't been without its glitches. Jan Knoble and Kim Carson both said they had trouble hearing the most recent broadcast Saturday, and the archived version was also difficult to understand this week. But the other two webcasts drew strong reviews, and the Big Train is looking into what happened to Saturday's.

Both Kim Carson and Jan Knoble vowed to keep listening. It's the next best thing to watching their sons play, which is exactly what the Big Train had in mind.

"We're really pleased with how it has gone from our end," Thompson said. "Nate's great. He does a good job up there. ... I'm just hoping that the listeners are pleased."

Notes: Lewis' most recent broadcast was of a 6-3 win over the College Park Bombers, which put the Big Train atop the CRSCBL standings. Bethesda then swept a Sunday doubleheader against the Maryland Redbirds. Adam Redd and Brett Tidball combined for a 1-0 shutout win in the first game, and Brett Hoeflich's three-run home run punctuated an 11-5 victory in the second. The sweep capped a perfect 7-0 week during which the Big Train moved from worst to first in the league.

Bethesda's road game Tuesday against the Rockville Express finished too late to be included in this edition. The Big Train will be in action again Wednesday night, when they host the Silver Spring-Takoma Thunderbolts, the last team (as of Monday) to have beaten them.