HARRISBURG, PA – Timely hitting was fairly one-sided on Tuesday night, as the Bowie Baysox began a six-game road trip with a 5-1 loss to the Harrisburg Senators. Bowie collected three more hits than Harrisburg, but went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position, and left nine runners on base.
The key theme of the night was established early, as Cesar Prieto drilled the first pitch of the game to the center field wall for a double, but was thrown out at third base trying to tag up on a fly out from the next batter.
The bottom of the frame saw Harrisburg put up all of the offense they needed. After Houston Roth walked the first batter, he allowed a first pitch home run to J.T. Arruda. Roth (L, 0-1) would settle against the remainder of the lineup, and only allow one more baserunner over four innings.
Bowie was only able to scratch across one run against Harrisburg’s Jackson Rutledge. Thanks to two singles in the fifth inning, Randy Florentino was able to pick up his first Double-A RBI when he grounded into a force out. Rutledge (W, 3-1) eventually finished six innings on the night in a quality start. Harrisburg got scoreless work out of the bullpen from Garvin Alston and Amos Willingham (Sv, 4)
Carlos Tavera took the fifth inning for Bowie, and he was aided by some heads-up defense for a scoreless first inning of work, but his second inning saw trouble. With two walks and two hits, Tavera allowed three runs. Conner Loeprich took the seventh and eighth innings for Bowie, maintaining his strong start to the season with two more scoreless frames.
Loeprich has not allowed an earned run in any of his seven outings this year.
The loss drops Bowie to 8-18 on the season. They will try to right themselves on Wednesday as their series at FNB Field continues, with the first pitch for the second game set for 6:00 p.m.
