May 31 - Bowie Fends off Altoona to Win Series Opener

BOX SCORE

BOWIE, MD – The Bowie Baysox closed May on a three-game win streak, their only one of the month, as they held on for a 5-4 win over the Altoona Curve at Peoples Natural Gas Field in Altoona. Bowie scored five of the first six runs of the game, and fended off a late attack by the Curve to win the series opener. Gunnar Henderson and Cesar Prieto each notched three-hit games.

Bowie jumped on Altoona’s Carmen Mlodzinski in the first inning, as Jordan Westburg and Gunnar Henderson each doubled to drive in a quick run. While Bowie did get another hit in the inning, they could only manage that first run.

After a clean second inning, Bowie charged again against Mlodzinski (L, 0-3) when Hudson Haskin lifted a sacrifice fly to center field, and Cody Roberts lined a two-out single to center field to score another run. Henderson added to his already impressive day in the fourth inning when he doubled again to drive in one run, and scored himself when Haskin followed with a single.

Following the nine early hits, Altoona shifted into their bullpen, and found better success. Bear Bellomy, Noe Toribio, and Tyler Samaniego held Bowie scoreless for the final five innings, and limiting the batters to only two hits.

Altoona’s offense was aided by notable Bowie miscues, including in the first inning when Jared Triolo scored an unearned run against lefty Drew Rom after reaching third base on a throwing error by the catcher. Rom rebounded to fire a scoreless second inning and a perfect third, but was tagged for a run on a Matt Fraizer single in the fourth inning. After the Fraizer single, Bowie turned to Jensen Elliott in relief, but another error, a throwing error by Elliott (W, 2-0) on a grounder in the fifth inning, allowed another unearned run to score, trimming the Bowie lead to just two runs.

Taking the back half of the game for Bowie, Noah Denoyer was quickly tagged for a run in the sixth inning when he allowed a double to Fraizer, the first batter Denoyer faced, and an RBI single to Brendt Citta. Denoyer (Sv, 1) held strong to only surrender two more baserunners through his four innings on the mound, and never allowing a runner to reach second base.

Bowie bumps their record up to 17-27 with the win, as they notch their first string of three-consecutive wins since they won four-straight against Akron in late April. Bowie and Altoona will continue their six-game series on Wednesday at PNG Field, with the first pitch scheduled for 6:00 p.m.