The Bowie Baysox dropped both ends of a doubleheader with the Richmond Flying Squirrels on Wednesday night, falling 5-1 in the first of two seven-inning affairs, before dropping game two by a 2-0 final.
After averaging seven runs per game in their previous seven games, Bowie saw its bats silenced, with only two runners reaching second base across all 14 innings of play, with the exception of their lone run of the day – a solo home run by Billy Cook in the seventh inning of game one.
Richmond struck early in game one, started by rehabbing right-hander Mychal Givens for Bowie. In his second rehab stint with the Baysox in 2023, Givens recorded a pair of outs in the top half of the first inning, before yielding back-to-back doubles to Marco Luciano and Shane Matheny, with Luciano coming home to score on the later and give the Flying Squirrels a 1-0 lead.
After an inning and a third from Givens (L, 0-2), his day would be done, making way for right-hander Connor Gillispie. Richmond would add on with a pair of home runs against Gillispie. In the top of the third, Luciano would send a two-run shot out to right-center field to make the score 3-0, before Carter Aldrete added a solo home run in the fourth to make it 4-0 Flying Squirrels. Gillispie would go 3.2 innings before right-hander Tyler Burch would take the last two frames for the Baysox, conceding a run via a Vaun Brown RBI double. The Baysox would avoid the shutout in the bottom half with Cook’s late blast, his sixth of the season, but would not be as fortunate in the second game of the day.
Baysox right-hander Justin Armbruester and Flying Squirrels right-hander Kai-Wei Teng locked horns in an early pitchers duel. Despite going all seven frames for the Baysox, it was Armbruester who blinked first, as a leadoff double by Brandon Martorano came home to score on an eventual wild pitch. Richmond doubled its lead on a fifth-inning sacrifice fly from Simon Whiteman that plated Jimmy Glowenke, who walked to lead off the frame on Armbruester’s lone free pass of the evening. Across the seven frames, Armbruester (L, 3-2), fanned three batters and scattered seven hits, with both Richmond runs being earned.
Teng (W, 1-3) tortured Bowie bats for all of his five innings, fanning five and walking none, with just three hits allowed. The right-hander exited the game in the fifth with just 49 pitches thrown, as right-hander Jose Cruz took it the rest of the way for the Flying Squirrels. Cruz (S, 2) struck out a pair and didn’t allow a Baysox batter to reach base. The shutout was just the second for the Bowie offense in 2023.
The pair of defeats drop the Baysox to 24-34 on the season, as Bowie still sits in last place in the Eastern League Southwest Division. The Baysox and Flying Squirrels are set to resume their seven-game series on Thursday night, with first pitch scheduled for 6:35 p.m. ET from Prince George’s Stadium.
