The Bowie Baysox held on for a one-run win over the Binghamton Rumble Ponies on Wednesday night at Mirabito Stadium in Binghamton, plating a go-ahead run in the seventh inning as part of a 4-3 win. Jordan Westburg clubbed his third home run of the season early, but the biggest contribution came out of the bullpen from Ryan Watson. The Bowie right-hander spun four perfect innings of relief to earn the win.
Garrett Stallings took the mound for Bowie, the final starter in the rotation to open the season. Binghamton put a scare on in the first inning with a trio of baserunners, but Stallings used a double play and a strikeout to keep the scoreboard clean. Bowie would give Stallings room to breathe in the third inning when they pounced on Binghamton starter Mitch Ragan.
With two outs in the third inning, Maverick Handley drew a walk, Adam Hall singled to center field, and Jordan Westburg battled to a full count with Ragan before delivering a huge three-run home run to right-center field. Binghamton immediately turned to Willy Taveras out of the bullpen and got three scoreless innings from the reliever. Binghamton would use the time to close the gap against Stallings. As Brett Baty and Ronny Mauricio went back-to-back with RBI doubles in the third inning to cut Bowie’s lead to just one run.
Binghamton tied the game in the fifth inning against Logan Gillaspie, starting when Jake Mangum tripled to center field. Francisco Alvarez nearly followed with an extra-base hit of his own, but Zach Watson made a leaping catch up against the center-field wall to limit the damage to a sacrifice fly. Mangum scored from third base on the flyout to make it 3-3.
When Binghamton lifted Taveras for Kevin Gadea (L, 0-1), Bowie found their two-out production again. Westburg got the train moving with a two-out walk and advanced to second base on a wild pitch. Gunnar Henderson put Bowie ahead for good with a soft single up the middle to score Westburg.
Following Gillaspie out of the bullpen, Bowie got the best outing they could have possibly hoped for from Ryan Watson. In his Double-A debut, Watson (W, 1-0) struck out seven batters, including the first four he faced while twirling four perfect innings to maintain the Bowie lead for the rest of the night.
Bowie moves to 2-3 on the season with the win and will face Binghamton again on Thursday to continue their six-game series. Drew Rom is scheduled to start for Bowie, with the first pitch in Binghamton scheduled for 6:35 p.m.
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