Three-run home runs from Gilbert Lara and Billy Cook powered the Bowie Baysox to a 7-6 victory over the Erie SeaWolves on Sunday afternoon to end their season-long 11-game homestand.
In a rematch of Tuesday’s starting pitching matchup, Baysox right-hander Chayce McDermott squared off against SeaWolves southpaw Brant Hurter. The Erie lefty had a exceptional start to the season, allowing just one earned run across his first five starts (21 innings), including five innings with one un-earned run allowed and a season-high seven strikeouts against Bowie earlier in the week.
The SeaWolves gave Hurter an early lead in the top half of the second inning. After four consecutive strikeouts to open his start, McDermott yielded a one-out single to Julio Rodriguez before Gage Workman hammered a two-run bomb to establish Erie’s 2-0 lead. This would be the only occasion the SeaWolves would get to McDermott on the afternoon, as the Orioles’ No. 18 prospect would only allow one base runner the remainder of his five innings, striking out nine batters to match his career-high in a Baysox uniform.
Offensively, the Bowie bats got going the second time this week against Hurter. Ramon Rodriguez would double in the first, before being thrown out at the plate trying to score on a single from Cook to end the frame. Frustration brewed in the third inning, as Coby Mayo was ejected from the game after protesting a called strike following his flyout later in the at-bat and was replaced by Cesar Prieto.
The Baysox finally broke through in the fourth, as Rodriguez and Cook led off the frame with back-to-back hits before Lara golfed his three-run home run down the left field line for his first long ball of the season to flip the score in favor of Bowie, 3-2. The Baysox struck again against Hurter in the following frame, as Cook came up with two outs and clobbered his three-run shot well over the wall in left center to make the score 6-2 and chase Hurter from the contest. It was Cook’s third home run of the season, all of them coming in this series, and gave him 11 RBI through the six-game set this week against Erie.
The SeaWolves would send a scare into the Baysox bullpen in the later innings of the contest. Luis Santana led off the sixth inning with a solo shot against Bowie left-hander Easton Lucas. The Baysox would get that run back in the bottom of the seventh via a Prieto RBI double to make the score 7-3. However, the SeaWolves ended the afternoon for Lucas in the top of the eighth when Trei Cruz hit a solo home run to shrink the Baysox lead to 7-4.
That score line would hold until the top of the ninth, where Erie loaded the bases after a fielder’s choice, single, and hit by pitch against Bowie right-hander Nolan Hoffman. Workman proceeded to nab his third RBI of the afternoon on a deep sacrifice fly to center field, before a Daniel Cabrera RBI single made the score 7-6 in favor of the Baysox, with the SeaWolves maintaining runners on second and first.
That ended the afternoon for Hoffman and brought on right-hander Wandisson Charles, who was able to strikeout Santana and end any threat of an Erie comeback. It was the first save of the season for Charles and his first save as a member of the Orioles organization – ending the Baysox two-game losing streak. McDermott would pick up the win to move to 2-2 on the season, while the loss went to Hurter for the SeaWolves, dropping his record to 1-1.
Overall, Bowie now sits at 8-17 on the season – still bottom of the Southwest division and three games behind the fifth-place Harrisburg Senators. The Baysox will have an off-day Monday before traveling to Harrisburg to begin a six-game set with the Senators on Tuesday. First pitch for Tuesday’s series opener is set for 6:30 p.m. ET.
