Despite four strong innings from right-hander Houston Roth and another multi-hit effort from Cesar Prieto, the Bowie Baysox dropped their sixth contest in the last seven, and fourth straight, falling 3-2 to the Richmond Flying Squirrels in an early afternoon affair on Tuesday.
Things started promising for Bowie, who struck first in the bottom half of the third, to the tune of three consecutive hits. Prieto singled, before the red-hot Zach Watson doubled him home, extending his hitting streak to six games. The Baysox would double their advantage when John Rhodes scored Watson with a single to make the game 2-0.
Roth was stellar in his first action in a little over a week, as the right-hander only gave up a single hit and a single walk to go along with five strikeouts. However, in the top of the fifth, the Richmond bats found more success against right-hander Chayce McDermott. Tyler Fitzgerald led off the inning with a triple down the right field line. After a walk and pop out, Riley Mahan bounced into what looked like a possible inning-ending double play ball, but Mahan was able to beat the play out after the runner at second was put out, allowing Fitzgerald to score, and cutting the Baysox lead to 2-1.
Richmond would strike again in the top of the seventh, in a somewhat similar fashion. This time, Fitzgerald would double to deep left, and eventually score after a walk and base hit, on an infield single from Simon Whiteman to tie the game.
McDermott would allow no further damage in his three innings of work. However, in the eighth inning, the Flying Squirrels took the lead with a pair of solo home runs from Patrick Bailey and Andy Thomas off Tyler Burch. That gave Richmond a 4-2 lead they would not relinquish, thanks to six shutout innings from the Flying Squirrels bullpen.
The loss drops Bowie to 5-10 – four and a half games behind the first place Flying Squirrels. The six-game series continues Wednesday, with a scheduled first pitch of 6:35 ET from Prince George’s Stadium.
