Squirrels, Baysox split twin bill

The Flying Squirrels (18-35) and Bowie Baysox (21-31) split a doubleheader at The Diamond on Wednesday evening.

Richmond’s Myles Schroder and Ryder Jones homered in the first inning of game one to lead the Squirrels in a 4-2 victory. Tyler Rogers finished the game with a scoreless final inning to earn his sixth save of the season. In game two, lefty Matt Gage hurled seven innings in a 3-0 defeat. Gage tossed 99 pitched and allowed just four hits in the tough loss.

 

Game 1

Richmond shook off the sluggish start to the homestand with an electric first inning in game one of the doubleheader Wednesday.  Myles Schroder quickly gave the Squirrels a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when he slammed a home run over the right field wall off starting pitcher David Hess. Ricky Oropesa allowed the inning to continue with a two-out base hit and Hunter Cole followed with a single, putting runners on first and second. Ryder Jones then delivered a towering three-run homer run over the right field wall for a 4-0 advantage.

Pitching with the early lead, Squirrels starter Dan Slania was sharp to begin his second professional start. Bowie did threatened to score off of Slania in the first inning but were turned aside. Chance Sisco doubled with two outs and attempted to score on a base hit to right field. Tyler Horan fielded the single and threw out Sisco at home to end the inning. Slania went on to retire the next six batters through the second and third innings.

Bowie came back with a pair of runs in the fourth to cut the deficit in half, 4-2. Tucker Nathans,Chance Sisco  and Garabez Rosa all reached at the outset of the fourth. Henry Urrutia put the Baysox on the board by grounding into a double play and Joey Terdoslavich connected on an RBI single. Jeff Kemp nearly pulled Bowie to within a run on a deep fly to center that Myles Schroder tracked the ball down to make the catch and end the inning. Slania was at 63 pitches after four innings.

Hess then settled in andretired seven consecutive batters heading into the fifth inning. Myles Schroder delivered his second hit of the day to lead off the fifth and Arroyo did the same. Hess then picked up a double play and pop up to keep the score 4-2. Hess (2-4) was the losing pitcher and hurled five innings in the defeat. 

Slania was through afterfour innings due to extensive action in the fourth. Slania allowed two runs on five hits and three strikeouts in the no-decision. Christian Jones replacedSlania to start the fifth and retired all six batters he faced to earn the win. Jones (1-2) struck out a pair of hitters and handed the ball off to Tyler Rogers for the seventh and final inning. Rogers faced the minimum three batters to pick up his sixth save in six opportunities.

 

Game 2

Mat Gage took control from the beginning for the Squirrels in game two of the doubleheader. Gage was fluid in is ninth start of the season and needed just 11 pitches in the first inning and allowed just an infield single through the first five frames.

Bowie countered as they used three quality innings from Stefan Crichton in a spot start for the Baysox. Crichton allowed just one hit and a walk over three innings of work. The righty reached his pitch limit of 42 and was relieved by Jimmy Yacabonis to begin the fourth inning.  Yacobonis earned the win with two scoreless innings of relief. Bowie gave Yacabonis the victory by scoring three runs in the sixth inning. With one out in the sixth, Henry Urrutia singled and advanced to second via a two-out base hit from Garabez Rosa. Gage then glanced the next hitter Quincy Latimore on the back foot to load the bases. Tucker Nathans snapped the scoreless game with a bases-clearing double that sailed out to left field for a 3-0 lead.

Gage (1-5) made it through the sixth and returned to the mound for the seventh to eanr a complete game loss. Former Flying Squirrel Jason Stoffel  pitched a scoreless ninth to earn the save and split the doule header.