Bowie Baysox rally, hold off Richmond Flying Squirrels, 4-3

The Richmond Flying Squirrels dropped a three-run lead and could not make a late comeback in a 4-3 loss to the Bowie Baysox on Wednesday night at The Diamond.

The Flying Squirrels (53-51, 20-15), the Double-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants, allowed four unanswered runs to the Baysox (49-55, 18-17), the Double-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles, and left nine runners on base in their first loss of the week.

Tied up, 3-3, with two outs in the eighth inning, Silas Ardoin rocketed an RBI double against reliever Evan Gates (Loss, 3-6) to push the Baysox to a 4-3 advantage. Ardoin finished the night with two hits and two RBIs.

Bowie reliever Keagan Gillies (Save, 1) set down all six batters he faced over a scoreless eighth and ninth innings to close out the Baysox win.

The Flying Squirrels jumped on top, 2-0, in the bottom of the first inning when Shane Matheny crushed a two-run homer to center field. It was Matheny’s sixth home run of the season with Richmond.

With the bases loaded and one out in the third inning, Carter Aldrete lofted a sacrifice fly to send Ismael Munguia home and pushed the Richmond advantage to 3-0.

Bowie broke the shutout in the fourth when Ardoin lined an RBI single to cut the deficit to 3-1.

After a leadoff walk and a double to put runners at second and third in the fifth, Cedric Mullins made it a one-run deficit with an RBI groundout. In the next at-bat, Jackson Holliday bounced a grounder to first and brought home Collin Burns from third base to even the score, 3-3.

Reliever Ben Madison covered 2.2 scoreless innings with a season-high five strikeouts and allowed two baserunners.

Bowie reliever Houston Roth (Win, 5-2) allowed four walks and one hit over two innings but held the Flying Squirrels scoreless.

The Flying Squirrels will take on the Baysox Thursday night with first pitch scheduled for 6:35 p.m. Left-hander John Michael Bertrand (1-1, 4.00) will make the start for Richmond opposed by Bowie right-hander John Means on an MLB rehab assignment.

Thursday is the second Faith Night of the season and fans can hear player testimonials and music before the game. In-Your-Face Fireworks will shoot off after the game presented by Puritan Cleaners.

Tickets are available online at SquirrelsBaseball.com/Tickets, by phone at 804-359-FUNN (3866) or in person at the Flying Squirrels ticket office.