Cook Serves Up Second Helping Of Extra Inning Magic As Bowie Downs New Hampshire

BOX SCORE

BOWIE, MD – The Bowie Baysox were staring a very similar situation down on Wednesday night, as Billy Cook came to the plate against New Hampshire’s Joe Jones in extra innings with a chance to walk it off. For the second consecutive night, Cook delivered, as his two-run home run in the tenth inning once again lifted the Baysox over the Fisher Cats by a 11-10 final. The blast marked the second-consecutive night that Cook walked off New Hampshire with an extra-inning home run off Jones, after his three-run blast in the eleventh inning of Tuesday night’s victory.

Bowie arrived at its same destination after a roller coaster affair on Wednesday. The Baysox took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning, with two runs scoring on a three-base error that credited a single RBI to Maxwell Costes, before Costes himself scored on an RBI groundout from Anthony Servideo. The Fisher Cats responded with two runs in the top of the fourth, including the first of two solo home runs on the evening from Will Robertson and an RBI single from Riley Tirotta. However, Bowie responded with 3.2 innings of scoreless relief from right-hander Alex Pham, combined with two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning, as Dylan Beavers drove in a run with a double before scoring himself on a wild pitch to make it a 5-2 game.

The wheels fell off momentarily for Bowie in the eighth, when New Hampshire scored six runs on six hits in the frame to take an 8-5 lead. Robertson kicked off the scoring with his second long ball of the night, as five other Fisher Cats also registered RBI in the inning. The teams exchanged blows in the later innings, with Cook picking up an RBI on a bases loaded single in the bottom of the eighth to make it 8-6, followed by Costes scoring on a wild pitch to get Bowie within a run at 8-7. New Hampshire responded by tacking on a run on yet another wild pitch in the top of the ninth. However, the Baysox were able to plate two in the ninth to tie the game. John Rhodes led off the frame with an infield single, getting pushed to second base on a walk to Donta’ Williams and scoring on a Greg Cullen RBI single. Costes then mashed a game-tying sacrifice fly to center field later in the frame to plate the tying run in Williams, pushing the Baysox to their fourth-consecutive extra-inning contest at home.

Right-hander Nick Richmond (W, 2-1) did allow New Hampshire’s runner out at second base to kick off the tenth inning to come around and score on an RBI single from Rainer Nunez, but kept the Fisher Cats’ lead at 10-9. With a heavily taxed bullpen and a blown save in the ninth already, New Hampshire turned back to Jones (L, 2-3), who saw Cook stepping into the right-handed batter’s box to lead off the bottom half of the tenth. Cook rocketed a 2-2 offering on a line to deep right field, watching it sail over the wall for his second walk-off home run in as many nights.

The walk-off win is a league-high tenth for the Baysox this season. Bowie has won the first two of their six-game series with the New Hampshire, improving to 32-27 in the second half and remaining two games out of a playoff spot in the Southwest division. The Baysox and Fisher Cats look to resume their series on Thursday night, with first pitch set for 6:35 p.m. from Prince George’s Stadium.