SeaWolves Defense Stumps Baysox
May 22, 2011 - Eastern League (EL1)
Chesapeake Baysox News Release
Bowie, Md. - After winning in 12 innings Saturday night, the SeaWolves jumped out to an early lead against the Baysox Sunday afternoon and won their second game in a row 6-1. With the loss, the Baysox drop below .500 to 21-22.
The Baysox offense recorded seven hits, but struggled to string them together and get hits when runners were in scoring position. With two outs and the bases loaded in the first inning, the Baysox were unable to come away with a run and with two on and no outs in the second inning, Bowie was again unable to score.
"We just can't put hits together," said Manager Gary Kendall. "We scattered our seven hits, I think we put two together early in the ball game, but it's just really hard to score runs when you're getting a lot of singles. I thought that with the swings that we had against that guy - we lined out, we hit some sharp balls - I thought eventually we were going to get to this guy, but we never did.
The SeaWolves jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning against left-handed starting pitcher Rick Zagone. With one out, Brandon Douglas doubled to center field and then Rawley Bishop reached on an error that put runners at first and third. The next batter, Bryan Pounds hit an RBI single to right field that scored Douglas and moved Bishop to third base. With Francisco Martinez batting, Pounds tried to steal second and was caught stealing, but on the play Bishop came home to score the second run of the inning. Martinez then singled to center field, stole second and went to third on a wild pitch. He was then knocked in on an RBI single to right field by Michael Bertram that made it a 3-0 game.
In the second inning the SeaWolves added another run. John Murrian doubled to left field with one out, then Jaime Johnson walked and Douglas struck out. With two outs, Bishop hit an RBI single to left field that scored Murrian to push the lead to 4-0.
The SeaWolves extended the lead to five runs in the third inning on a solo home run to left-center field by Martinez.
In the fourth inning the Baysox got on the scoreboard. Designated hitter Caleb Joseph led off with a double to left field and moved over to third on a groundout by Buck Britton. Billy Rowell then knocked him in with a ground out to first that made the score 5-1.
The SeaWolves tacked on one more run in the ninth inning against left-handed reliever Nick Bierbrodt. With two down and Johnson at first after a walk, Bishop knocked in his second run of the game with an RBI double to left that extended the lead to 6-1.
Zagone pitched six innings and allowed five runs (three earned) on nine hits while striking out four. Zagone struggled with his control early in the game, but was able to calm down for the second half of his outing. Zagone and Bierbrodt combined to face just nine batters in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings. Bierbrodt pitched three innings in relief of Zagone and allowed one earned run on three hits.
"I was a little shaky at first - I couldn't throw strikes but I was able to settle down in the last couple innings and my fastball was back in the zone and I was getting some bad swings," Zagone said. "I was rushing a little bit in the beginning of the game and I just had to calm down, just trust my stuff and hit my locations."
The Baysox had several hard hit balls that looked to be sure hits taken away by a solid defensive effort by Erie second baseman Brandon Douglas and the rest of the infield. Many of the opportunities the Baysox had to string hits together were swallowed up by the SeaWolves infield.
"Their second baseman made a lot of good plays - you're talking about maybe three or four hits there," Joseph said. "Who knows, if one of those goes through maybe we string together three or four and then it's a different story, but their defense played really good."
The top of the Baysox batting order continued to have success at the plate as the top five batters in the rotation each recorded a hit. Center field Xavier Avery, second baseman Greg Miclat and left fielder Robbie Widlansky each extended their hitting streaks in Sunday's game. Miclat and Widlansky are currently on team-high six game hitting streaks while Avery's streak sits at five games.
Monday, RHP Zach Clark (1-2, 5.76) takes the mound for the Baysox in the first game of a road series against the Altoona Curve. His opponent will be LHP Jeff Locke (2-4, 4.68).
The Baysox begin an eight-game road trip starting Monday, May 23, but return home for a seven game homestand Tuesday, May 31. For more information on Baysox promotions and theme nights, visit www.baysox.com.
Baysox Baseball - We'll Knock Your 'Sox Off. The Baysox 19th season as the class Double-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles is underway. Parking is free at every Baysox home game and tickets are now available at www.baysox.com.
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