Bowie’s Baysox survived a rain-shortened, 10-3 clobbering at Richmond’s hands Saturday to take a 5-1 win Sunday, capping a 5-1 week full of hot bats and strong mound performances. The season’s second half has a pulse.
Maverick Handley homered on the first pitch he saw in the third inning Sunday, and the Baysox continued from there. Christopher Cespedes brought Cody Roberts home for their fourth hit of the inning. Roberts had a three-hit game, with his final hit setting up Zach Watson for Bowie’s second two-run homer.
A 4-2 win Friday night was Bowie’s fourth straight. Coby Mayo’s single drove in Connor Norby to tie the game in the home half of the first, paying dividends on their promotions earlier in the week.
Baysox starter Noah Denoyer ate an unearned run through five innings but still collected a career-high nine strikeouts.
Adam Stauffer (W, 2-1) opened up the top of the sixth and twirled three scoreless innings for the Baysox, striking out five batters and dropping his ERA to 2.97.
In the “So, What Else Is New Dept.,” Hudson Haskin led off the sixth inning with a solo home run for the second-consecutive night, this one tying the game. Andrew Daschbach beat out a near-double play at first base to drive in the go-ahead run, and Joey Ortiz scored on a wild pitch in the seventh to complete the scoring.
The new kids on the block proved themselves again in a 15-5 romp Thursday, starting in just the first inning when Norby and Colton Cowser each hit a pair of doubles. César Prieto lined an RBI single to left field, and Mayo added his Baysox first home run to make it 4-0.
In the bottom of the fourth, singles from Prieto and Haskin drove in two batters and J.D. Mundy’s fourth home run in three days, a three-run blast, made it 9-1.
On the first pitch of the bottom of the sixth, Haskin drilled one to left field for his ninth home run. Of the nine, Haskin has hit five of his home runs leading off an inning. It prefaced the second five-run inning of the night for the Baysox.
Prieto capped a four-hit day with an RBI single off Ryan Walker. Following a scoreless seventh inning by Taylor Rashi, Haskin reached his own four-hit day in the eighth inning, with a two-out double to left to drive in Bowie’s 15th run.
Wednesday night’s 12-1 win at Prince George’s Stadium featured another three home runs, including two by Mundy.
The Baysox were hit by more pitches than the Squirrels could even hit offensively, and all but one Bowie batter got on base at least once in an 11-hit attack.
After two hitless innings to open the night, Richmond right-hander Matt Frisbee (L, 3-5) ran into a bases loaded jam, and Prieto lined his first career grand slam to right-center field, putting Bowie ahead after an early 1-0 deficit.
Ryan Watson (W 5-2) kept the Squirrels flightless for five more innings, collecting his sixth win of the year, dropping down to a 3.82 ERA while striking out seven batters. The six innings was a career-high for Watson.
Bowie scored seven runs against two pitchers in the fifth, highlighted by Mundy’s three-run shot, ending the inning ahead 11-1.
Connor Loeprich opened up the frame in the top of the seventh, tossing two perfect innings, and Shelton Perkins capped off the night with the same stat.
Mundy’s second homer of the night capped the scoring in the seventh, and Solomon Bates spun a scoreless eighth inning to end the Richmond night.
In a 9-3 win to open the series Tuesday, Handley and Dashbach went deep back-to-back to the left field corner to give Bowie the 3-2 lead in the second inning.
The Baysox put up two more in the bottom of the third with the help of their latest promotions. Norby opened the frame with a single, and Cowser smashed a two-run home run to left-center field for his first Double-A hit. The left-handed Cowser collected three hits in his debut, all to left field.
Matt Harvey (W, 1-0) in his first Eastern League appearance since a rehab start with Binghamton in 2017, struck out nine over five innings, only allowing two early runs and a fourth inning solo home run by Shane Matheny.
Rather than the normal Monday off-day, the Baysox will travel to Bridgewater, NJ, today to take on the Somerset Patriots, the Yankees’ Double-A team (2-4 in the second half, 46-29 overall). It will be the Patriots’ first ever July 4 fireworks show, with game time at 7:05 p.m. EST. The off-day of the series is Tuesday.
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