Ballard Baffles Squirrels, Baysox Even Series
Clayton Tanner and Ballard dueled early in the ballgame, with each tossing three scoreless innings. However, Caleb Joseph put the Baysox on the board first when he sent a solo-home run to left field leading off the fourth inning. It was the sixth home run of the season for Joseph, and his second off of Tanner.
Bowie added a pair of runs against Tanner in the fifth inning. Tanner issued his first walk of the night to Ronnie Welty leading off the inning. Carlos Rojas followed the walk with a double into the left-field corner putting runners at second and third base with nobody out. Tanner uncorked a wild-pitch that allowed Welty to score for a 2-0 advantage. Greg Miclat capped the inning with an RBI single through the right-side of a drawn-in infield, and the Baysox enjoyed a 3-0 lead.
Meanwhile, Ballard continued to breeze through the Squirrels. He retired 15 consecutive batters, spanning from the final out in the third inning to the second out in the eighth. To that point, he had allowed just a lone base runner on a single from Nick Noonan in the third inning.
Johnny Monell finally snapped that string and eliminated the shutout bid of the Baysox when he rifled a solo-home run to left-center field in the eighth inning. Monell's seventh of the season turned into the only blemish on the night for Ballard, as he won his second consecutive start. Ballard (2-0) worked eight innings plus one batter, allowed just three hits, walked none and struck out seven.
After Ballard conceded a single to Noonan, leading off the ninth inning, he departed in favor of right-hander Armando Gabino. Gabino struck out Juan Perez before ending the ballgame by bouncing Charlie Culberson into a 1-6-3 double-play. Gabino earned his second save of the season for his efforts.
Tanner (2-7) endured a hard-luck loss despite his eighth quality-start of the season. He allowed three earned runs on seven hits. He walked one and registered a season-high eight strikeouts.
The Richmond bullpen was stout in defeat, as right-hander Hector Correa and left-hander Alex Hinshaw combined for three scoreless innings of relief. In his Double-A and Squirrels debut, Correa worked two innings, while Hinshaw worked one perfect inning.
The finale of the three-game series is scheduled for 2:05 PM on Sunday afternoon at The Diamond. Richmond will start LHP Ryan Verdugo (4-2, 3.00) against RHP Tim Bascom (2-1, 4.15) for the Baysox. For tickets or more information, please visit SquirrelsBaseball.com.