The Bowie Baysox opened their home slate in 2023 with a 7-4 defeat against the Akron RubberDucks on Tuesday night at Prince George’s Stadium.
Bowie was ultimately done in by untimely defensive miscues and the long ball, as Akron clobbered a pair of two run home runs and scored on an error for its offense.
The game started positively for the Baysox. Following pregame Opening Day festivities, Gilbert Lara delivered a two-RBI single with two outs in the bottom of the second for his first hit of the season and as part of the Orioles’ system. It gave Bowie an early 2-0 lead.
Starting on the mound for the Baysox was right-hander Garrett Stallings. Stallings was efficient, accumulating three strikeouts through two scoreless innings. However, he was greeted in the top of the third with three straight hits, including a single from Julian Escobedo before Michael Amiditis homered down the left field line for the first of the aforementioned two-run homers for the RubberDucks, to tie the game at two.
Akron then turned the lineup over and Petey Halpin tripled on a ball that caromed off the glove off Baysox CF Donta’ Williams on a diving effort. However, Halpin was thrown out at home trying to tag up on a flyout to LF Shayne Fontana by the next batter. This double play got Stallings out of a huge jam. He’d go on to allow no further damage across four innings, striking out four and allowing four total hits.
However, the Baysox would bounce back. In the bottom of the third, second baseman Cesar Preito hit a mammoth solo home run to right field, restoring the Baysox lead to 3-2.
In the fifth, Bowie would hand things over to the bullpen. Left-hander Antonio Velez recorded two quick outs in the fifth, before a two-out walk and a ground ball single sparked a rally for Akron. RubberDucks Catcher Bryan Lavastida then hit a grounder to Bowie third baseman Coby Mayo, who bobbled the ball before delivering a low throw to first that could not be picked by first baseman Jacob Teter. The deflection off Teter’s glove took the ball away from him, allowing the aforementioned two-out walk to score all the way from second to tie the game at three.
In the top of the seventh, with Velez still on the bump, Akron got its second two-run shot of the night – this one coming off the bat of Angel Martinez, to take a 5-3 lead.
Bowie would threaten in the bottom of the eighth, as DH Heston Kjerstad homered to right field for his second long-ball of the season, cutting the deficit to 5-4. The Baysox went on to load the bases via singles by Mayo and Prieto and a walk to Fontana, but ultimately, Williams would strike out with the bases loaded to end the frame. In total, Baysox hitters struck out 14 times on Tuesday night.
Akron added on two more runs in the top of the ninth for insurance, while Bowie went quietly in the bottom half despite a pair of singles.
The loss drops the Baysox record to 2-2 on the young season. They’ll look to even the series on Wednesday night, with first pitch scheduled for 6:35 p.m. ET.
