Baysox bombard Squirrels

News of Brandon Crawford’s impending arrival to The Diamond was not enough to deliver a win for Richmond as the Flying Squirrels (11-17) dropped the series finale to Bowie (16-14) 8-4 on Sunday afternoon.

Bowie collected 13 hits in the win and compiled 42 hits over thefinal three games to win the series. Richmond will continue the current homestand on Monday against the Altoona Curve with San Francisco Giants shortstop and MLB All-Star Brandon Crawford scheduled to make a rehab appearance. Tickets are available by clicking here.

Richmond lefty Matt Gage took the mound for the rubber match of the five-game series. Gage, facing Bowie for the third timethis season, utilized a double play to face the minimum on nine pitches in the first. Gage (0-3) induced a total of three double plays throughout the afternoon in the loss.

Tanner Scott countered Gage and harnessed his power fastball over three clean innings of work. Scott, transitioning from reliever into a starter, punched out the first two batters he faced. Miguel Gomez then doubled out to deep left center field but was left stranded at second base to end the inning.

Gage encountered trouble in the second inning to fall behind 2-0. After issuing a leadoff walk to Aderlin Rodriguez, GarabezRosa smashed a ball off the scoreboard in left center field for the early lead. It was the fourth home run of the season for Rosa and his first against theSquirrels. Rosa finished the game with four hits and 11 in the series.

Scott continued to deal for the Baysox and worked through three innings in his sixth start of the season. Scott struck out two more batters in the second and another pair in the third to end his outing. The lefty tossed 53 pitches and allowed just one hit in the no-decision.

Bowie added two more off of Gage in the fifthinning to take a 4-0 lead. Erick Salcedo, Jay Gonzalez and Tucker Nathans all singled to load the bases and Adrian Marian delivered a two run base hit tocenterfield. Gage was able to limit the damage to jus the two runs by Marin totaled two hits in the contest and nine overall during the five game series.

The Baysox dinged Gage for another run in thesixth to force him from the game .The lefty lasted 5 2/3 innings and yielded five runs on nine hits in the defeat. He walked two and struck out one batter using 98 pitches.

The Squirrels mustered a pair of runs off of reliever Jason Garcia in the bottom of the sixth inning to pull within three runs, 5-2. Brandon Bednar opened the inning with a double followed by a Miguel Gomez walk. Dylan Davis then stepped up and roped an RBI double to left field to end the Richmond scoring drought. The double pushed Garcia from the game. He was replaced by left-hander Tim Berry. Berry allowed an RBI groundout, scoring the inherited runner Gomez.

Carlos Alvarado relieved Gage and turned in his longest outing of the season. Alvarado lasted 2 1/3 innings and allowed one run in the seventh to fall behind 6-3. Richmond pulled back to within a pair ofruns after scoring in the bottom of the eighth. Dylan Davis singled to begin the inning and eventually scored on a flare base hit to left field to make it a 6-4 contest.

Bowie pulled away in the ninth with two more runs, this time against reliever Rodolfo Martinez. Martinez made his season debut and yielded a pair of runs on two hits in the outing.  Rosa finished off the scoring for the Baysox with an RBI base hit for the 8-4 finish.

The Squirrels continue an action-packed eight-game, seven-day homestand on Monday at at 6:35 p.m., with Bark in the Park TennisBall Dog Bone Chew Toy Giveaway to the first 250 dogs. Richmond will send RHP Jordan Johnson (1-2) to the mound against Altoona RHP Alex McRae (3-0, 2.12). Flying Squirrels individual tickets, mini plans and group packages are on sale by contacting the Richmond box office at 804-359-FUNN or online at www.squirrelsbaseball.com