What has been a tough line to hold, the Bowie Baysox held strong on Thursday night to halt their brief two-game losing skid. Bowie plated three runs early, and held off small rallies by the Akron RubberDucks to secure a 4-2 win.
With both starting pitchers working scoreless through two innings, Bowie got to work after a walk and a double to open the third inning, and Connor Norby drove in a run on a groundout before the inning ended. Cody Roberts delivered an RBI single with two outs in the fourth inning, and a passed ball later in the frame made it 3-0 Bowie.
All three runs came against Thomas Ponticelli (L, 2-3) while Bowie did have scoreless innings against Jerson Ramirez and Manuel Alvarez. In the seventh inning, Hudson Haskin drove in an insurance run against Alvarez, before Akron turned to Brett Daniels for two perfect innings to cap the night on the mound.
Turning in his longest start of the year, Brenan Hanifee came close to spinning five scoreless frames, but an error forced his early departure after two outs in the fifth. An RBI double by Bryan Lavastida did charge Hanifee with an unearned run, but Jensen Elliott (W, 6-2) still handled four fast outs for Bowie to earn the win.
Left-hander Jake Prizina struck out the first four batters he faced in relief before allowing a two-out double in the eighth inning, and Johnkensy Noel crushed a double to right field off of the next pitcher to drive in the run against Prizina.
Despite allowing the inherited runner to score, Conner Loeprich (Sv, 4) finished the eighth and spun a scoreless ninth, partly thanks to a double play started by Joey Ortiz at shortstop.
At the plate, Ortiz went 1-for-4 with a double and a run scored. His active 18-game hit streak is now tied for the longest by a player in the Eastern League this season.
Bowie returns to .500 with the win at 52-52, while their second half record bumps to 25-10. They will look to even the series with Akron on Friday, as the seven-game series continues at 7:05 p.m.
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