The Bowie Baysox (14-16) threatened in the ninth, but came up short in a 2-1 loss to the Altoona Curve (16-13) on Tuesday night at Peoples Natural Gas Field in Altoona.
In the top of the ninth, Adrian Marin led off with a single and scored later in the frame following consecutive two-out singles from Cedric Mullinsand Anderson Feliz to bring the Baysox within a run at 2-1.
Austin Hays came to the plate with runners at the corners and two out, but RHP Geoff Hartlieb (0.1 IP, K) fanned Hays to end the game and notch his third save of the year.
Curve starter Brandon Waddell (1-0) allowed one run on six hits while fanning seven over a season-high 8.2 IP.
Altoona got on the board in the first with Jason Martin’s solo shot off of Baysox starter Lucas Long.
Making his first start of the year, Long gave up the one run on two hits to go along with two strikeouts in 5.0 IP. The right-hander threw 44 of his 59 pitches for strikes.
In the home half of the sixth, Ke’Bryan Hayes got on base with a two-out triple and scored two batters later on Martin’s RBI single to stretch the Curve’s lead to 2-0.
Marin (2-3, R) and Mullins (2-4) both had multi-hit games for manager Gary Kendall’s squad, while RHP Jay Flaa (2.0 IP, BB, K) had a scoreless outing in relief.
The series wraps up on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. as RHP Hunter Harvey (0-1, 3.65) gets the start for Bowie against Altoona RHP Mitch Keller (3-1, 2.73)
