The Richmond Flying Squirrels used three home runs in a six-run fourth inning to earn a series win, defeating the Bowie Baysox, 7-1, in front of a Labor Day crowd of 6,631 at The Diamond.
Richmond (32-40) opened the scoring on a first-inning Jalen Miller double to left-center field and extended the lead to 7-0 with three home runs to left field in the fourth inning. Yusniel Diaz paced the Bowie offense with a pair of hits and a walk drawn in four at-bats, while Preston Palmeiro had two hits of his own. Ryan Ripken accounted for the other Baysox hit.
The lone guest run broke up the shutout bid with one out in the ninth inning. Facing Alfred Gutierrez, Brett Cumberland lifted a sacrifice fly to left field to score Palmeiro without a throw from left fielder Jose Layer.
Four of the Baysox left-handers took the mound in the season finale. Following starter Alex Wells and reliever Brian Gonzalez, fellow bullpen mates Tyler Erwin and Luis Gonzalez–along with RHP Cristian Alvarado–combined to hold the hosts to a combined one hit and one walk in four scoreless innings.
Bowie (46-26) has an off day on Tuesday before game one of the best-of-five Western Division Championship Series begins Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. at Prince George’s Stadium. Single-game tickets are available at the Prince George’s Stadium box office beginning Tuesday morning, or 24/7 at baysox.com.
