John Rhodes did it all for the Bowie Baysox on Saturday night, mashing a first inning home run, before scoring the game’s winning run on a wild pitch, to help the Bowie Baysox walk off the Altoona Curve, 6-5, from Prince George’s Stadium.
Rhodes’ first inning long ball opened the scoring, his fourteenth home run of the season and third of the week. However, Bowie’s early three-run edge would quickly evaporate. Altoona’s Joe Perez led off the top of the second with a solo home run that cut the lead to 3-1 – the only damage allowed by right-handed starter Tyler Wells in his two innings of work.
Right-hander Peter Van Loon entered for the Baysox in the third in his first action in a month and a half, due to a stint on the injured list. Van Loon struck out four batters, but only went 1.1 innings, after a walk and hit batter in the fourth both came around to score on a two-run double from the Curve’s Andres Alvarez and tie the game. Altoona took the lead in the fifth on a solo home run from Eli Wilson against Bowie right-hander Alex Pham.
The Curve’s first lead of the night would not last long, as the bottom of the fifth saw Max Wagner tie the game with an RBI double that scored Dylan Beavers.
That score held into the seventh, with Pham working out of a bases loaded jam in the sixth for Bowie. However, with two outs in the seventh, a double from Tsung-Che Cheng was followed by an infield single from Matt Gorski. Rushing the throw in an attempt to retire Gorski, shortstop Collin Burns launched a throw into the Baysox dugout, allowing Cheng to score on the play and give the Curve the lead.
After being held off the board in both the seventh and eighth, Bowie came up with the heroics in the ninth. Once again, it was Wagner, who celebrated his 22nd birthday in style. His second RBI of the night was a run-scoring single off Altoona left-hander Geronimo Franzua that plated Beavers once again to tie the game at five.
Extra innings followed, as right-hander Nick Richmond navigated the top of the tenth for Bowie with some help from the defense. After allowing a single to leadoff the inning, that pushed the go-ahead run to third, Richmond (W, 1-0) generated a flyout to right field, where Jud Fabian not only made the catch, but fired a strong, accurate throw into home plate to nail the runner trying to tag and score from third. The tag was slapped down by catcher Ramon Rodriguez to complete the double play and keep the Curve off the board.
In the bottom half, Rhodes started out at second base for Bowie, advancing to third on a sacrifice bunt from Billy Cook before Franzua (L, 0-2) uncorked a wild pitch, allowing Rhodes to race home and win the game for the Baysox.
The walk-off was the seventh of the season for Bowie – it’s second on a wild pitch. The Baysox now sit at a record of 55-58 overall, remaining a game out of a second half playoff spot in the Southwest division. Bowie has already salvaged a series split on the week with Altoona, and will look for a series win in Sunday’s finale, with first pitch set for 1:05 p.m. ET from Prince George’s Stadium.
