The Baysox coughed up a 6-0, second-inning lead and never scored again, losing a 7-6 game to the Richmond Flying Squirrels yesterday, a blemish on a weekend featuring victories Friday and Saturday.
Bowie pounced on Richmond starter Kai-Wei Teng, scoring four in the first inning on RBI hits by César Prieto and Shayne Fontana, a sacrifice fly by Cody Roberts and a wild pitch by Teng.
When Fontana came through again with a two-run single in the next inning against Teng, the day was done for the Bowie offense.
Taking over in the third inning, Solomon Bates began a no-hit day for the Richmond bullpen by firing two innings. Ryan Walker, Chris Wright (W, 3-1), Cole Waites and Blake Rivera (SV, 2) did walk six batters over the remainder of the game but held Bowie frustrated for the rest of the day.
After two scoreless innings for Bowie, Justin Armbruester labored through the third before allowing a three-run home run to Ricardo Genoves.
Garrett Stallings pitched a perfect fifth for Bowie to extend his team-best scoreless streak to 16 consecutive innings. Brett Auerbach abruptly ended the streak for Stallings (L, 3-8) in the sixth with a solo shot, and after a two-out error extended the inning for Richmond, Jacob Heyward hit a game-tying, two-run homer.
Diego Rincones continued his crusade against Bowie pitching with an RBI single in the seventh to finish off the collapse. Rincones, for the time being the Aaron Judge of Double-A baseball, went 7-for-13 in the series.
Bowie took the middle game of the set at Richmond, 3-2, Saturday night. The Baysox slapped four doubles in the fourth inning to score all of their runs, while Drew Rom tossed five scoreless innings to earn his fourth win in his last five tries. Rom struck out seven and allowed only one batter to reach second base.
Out of the gate, Bowie had no answer for Richmond starter Kyle Harrison. In his first start since the All-Star Futures Game, Harrison struck out nine consecutive batters but only tossed three innings before giving way to Trenton Toplikar.
Bowie jumped on Toplikar (L, 2-1) for four doubles in a span of five batters, including RBI hits by Ortiz, Fontana and Maverick Handley.
Friday, Bowie never trailed in a 4-2 win. A first-inning triple for Ortiz opened the scoring for the Baysox against Matt Frisbee, and a sacrifice fly by Fontana in the third brought in a second run.
After a scoreless relief stint from Solomon Bates, Bowie broke a 2-2 tie in the seventh inning against Chris Wright (L, 2-1), when Fontana singled to score a pair.
Making his second start with Bowie, Brenan Hanifee tossed another three innings but allowed an early game-tying run when Armani Smith singled in a run. Following the single, Hanifee retired the final seven batters faced to close his brief start.
Fast-forwarding back to the present, Sunday’s loss cuts Bowie’s record to 40-49, 13-7 in the second half. Separated by only a half game in the standings, Bowie remains ahead of Altoona for the best record in the Southwest Division, and the two teams will open a six-game series at Prince George’s Stadium Tuesday.
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