The Bowie Baysox dominated the Altoona Curve for the fourth time this week with a 14-6 win on Sunday afternoon. Bowie showed their persistence as they faced down a pair of three-run deficits but slugged a season-high home run, including two off the bat of Greg Cullen and one grand slam from Joey Ortiz as he concluded his torrid hitting month of July.
The game started with both teams trading scoreless innings, largely thanks to Justin Armbruester throwing gas out of the gate in his second start for the Baysox. He retired all nine batters in his first three innings, allowing his first hit in the fourth inning. As Andres Alvarez raced to first on a weak dribbler up the middle, Armbruester’s throw to the base sailed too far right of the first baseman, which enabled Alvarez to make his way to third. Blake Sabol’s single in the very next at-bat drove in the Altoona third basemen, while another error replaced the runner at third base. Aaron Shackelford wasted no time taking advantage of the situation, with his line drive home run ballooning the lead up to 3-0. The Baysox responded to this adversity on their next turn up to bat when Cesar Prieto doubled to drive in a run. Bowie’s fourth inning mini-rally chased Dombrowski off the mound in favor of reliever Cristofer Melendez.
The Baysox picked up where they left off the very next inning, with Greg Cullen smashing his third home run with the team to bring Bowie within one. Cody Roberts and Shayne Fontana both took walks to first, enabling Altoona to replace Melendez with another reliever, Tahnaj Thomas. The away team’s newest pitcher walked a third batter, this time Colton Cowser, and Bowie managed to steal another run when Thomas threw a wild pitch and every runner advanced one base to tie the game
While Altoona jumped back ahead to a three-run advantage on Fabricio Macias’ three-run blast against Adam Stauffer, Bowie boomed three solo shots to retie the game, with Cullen hitting his second and Hudson Haskin and Cody Roberts joining in. Prieto laced another double in the seventh inning for two quick runs for the Baysox, giving them the 8-6 edge.
The home team looked to bury the Curve from that point onward and did so in devastating fashion in the eighth. Cowser singled with bases loaded on walks to bring home their ninth of the game, but it was Joey Ortiz who dealt the day’s dagger with a grand slam sent soaring over the right field wall. Toby Welk drove in Prieto to run the score up to 14-6 for good measure, becoming the seventh player from Bowie with a hit in the series finale.
Armbruester threw five innings and collected six strikeouts, throwing excellently in four of his innings. The fourth inning contained all three hits he allowed on the day. He was relieved by Adam Stauffer, who gave up a powerful three-run jack to Fabricio Macias in his first inning of work. Easton Lucas took Stauffer’s post after that inning was wrapped up, completely neutralizing the opposition during his tenure. Connor Loeprich got the close as Bowie’s final pitcher for the afternoon. The Curve, for their part, went through a total of six relief pitchers after starter Dombrowski lasted three and a third innings.
As Bowie improves to 45-50 on the season and 18-8 in the second half, they look ahead to an upcoming two-week road trip against Harrisburg and Akron starting on Tuesday, with the first pitch of the trip at 6:30 p.m.
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