The Bowie Baysox won their first game of the season in a slugfest with the Richmond Flying Squirrels on Saturday, fighting through three lead changes to an 11-6 final. Bowie plated six runs in the seventh inning, but the key performance belonged to Hudson Haskin. The Bowie outfielder matched a Baysox record by smacking three home runs, becoming just the sixth player in team history to do so.
The Bowie offense was hot from the start, as the first three batters of the first inning all singled. Gunnar Henderson drove in a run with his base hit, Joey Ortiz plated a run with a sacrifice fly, and Handerson scored later on a wild pitch in the frame. Bowie tacked on another run against Richmond’s right-hander Bryan Brickhouse when Haskin delivered his first home run, going to straight-away center field. John Russel relieved Brickhouse and delivered a scoreless outing through the fifth inning.
Haskin greeted the next pitcher out of the Richmond bullpen rudely, taking Blake Rivera to center field for his second home run. Rivera struck out the next three batters to close the sixth inning, but could not replicate his work in the seventh. After Richmond had taken a brief 6-5 lead, Bowie quickly reset the tone when Jordan Westburg sent another home run off of Rivera (L, 0-1) to right field.
Following an error that chased Rivera from the game, Ortiz hit the Baysox first triple of the season to plate a third run, and Haskin followed with the capper of his historic day, homering for the third time, this time to right-center field. Tyler Schimpf let up the final Haskin homer but was able to finally finish the seventh inning for Richmond, stopping the onslaught at six runs. Mercifully, Taylor Rashi pitched a scoreless eighth inning for the Squirrels.
Making his debut in the Orioles organization, left-handed pitcher Antonio Velez made an excellent first impression. After being traded over from the Marlins less than one week ago, Velez spun four scoreless innings while striking out seven batters.
Following Velez, Nolan Hoffman ran into trouble in the fifth inning. With Bowie ahead 4-0, Hoffman allowed four consecutive singles to open the frame as Richmond scored three runs. Bowie turned the game over to Morgan McSweeney, who allowed a game-tying home run to Sean Roby to open the sixth inning, and later two runs in the seventh inning on a hard-hit single by Diego Rincones. While McSweeney did allow three runs, taking the game from a 4-3 Bowie lead to a 6-5 Bowie deficit, McSweeney (W, 1-0) earned the win thank to Bowie’s seventh inning. With their fresh five-run lead, Bowie was able to lean on Ryan Conroy to finish the game, getting two scoreless innings from the right-hander.
With the win to end the series, Bowie opens the season with a 1-2 record. The Baysox will get back to action on Tuesday, as they take on the Binghamton Rumble Ponies in their first road set of the year. First pitch from Mirabito Stadium is set for 6:35 p.m.
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