Sellout Crowd Packs Final Diamond Opener in 7-4 Squirrels' Loss
Published on April 4, 2025 under Eastern League (EL)
Richmond Flying Squirrels News Release
RICHMOND, Va. - The Richmond Flying Squirrels welcomed a capacity crowd of 9,810 for the final Opening Night game at The Diamond and fell to the Akron RubberDucks, 7-4, on Friday night.
The Flying Squirrels (0-1) fell behind by six in the middle frames before the RubberDucks (1-0) quieted a late rally attempt.
With two outs and two strikes in the first inning, Dayan Frias doubled to left to give Akron a 2-0 lead against Richmond starter John Michael Bertrand (Loss, 0-1).
Sabin Ceballos, making his Double-A debut, brought home Carter Howell with a groundout in the bottom of the first to cut the deficit to 2-1.
Akron's Travis Bazzana, last year's top-overall draft pick and also in his first Double-A game, extended the lead to 3-1 with a two-out, RBI single in the fourth. Jorge Burgos added a two-run homer in the fifth to open a 5-1 RubberDucks lead. Akron scored each of its first five runs with two outs.
C.J. Kayfus hit a two-run single in the sixth to push the Akron lead to 7-1.
The Flying Squirrels cut the score to 7-4 in the bottom of the eighth. A run scored on an error and Diego Velasquez followed with a two-run single.
Zane Morehouse (Save, 1) worked around a ninth-inning walk to record the final three outs.
Akron starter Tommy Mace (Win, 1-0) allowed one run over five innings and struck out four.
Richmond reliever Michael Stryffeler, pitching his first full-season affiliate game since 2023 after missing time with an injury, threw 1.2 scoreless innings. Nick Garcia retired all four batters he faced.
John Smoltz, who played for the Richmond Braves in 1987 and 1988 prior to his Hall of Fame major league career, was on hand to throw out the ceremonial first pitch and sign autographs for fans.
The game was the 15th Opening Night sellout for the Flying Squirrels, drawing a capacity crowd for their opener in each of their 15 seasons at The Diamond. Richmond led all 30 Double-A clubs in total and average attendance each of the last three years.
The season-opening series continues on Saturday night at The Diamond with HBCU Night presented by Comcast-Xfinity. Fireworks follow the game. Tickets are on sale online at SquirrelsBaseball.com/Tickets, by phone at 804-359-FUNN (3866) or in person at the Flying Squirrels ticket office.
-SQUIRRELS-
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