Friday Night Walk Off for AA Bowie
The Orioles’ AA affiliate, the Bowie Baysox, knew how to start the weekend off right with a walkoff victory over the Altoona Curve on Friday night. The Baysox are in the middle of their six-game series against the Altoona Curve, AA affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The back-and-forth contest stayed close for the first nine innings, which eventually led into extras as the Curve induced a 3-3 ballgame in the top of the ninth. Altoona managed to come up with another run through an infield single off the bat of Aaron Shackleford, which put the Curve up 4-3. Altoona had a win probability percentage of 74.4% going into the bottom of the 10th, but the night was far from over in Bowie.
The Baysox were down to their final two outs when Billy Cook ignited Bowie’s offense with a line drive single to center field. This scored ghost runner Frederick Bencosme who started the inning at second base. Cook would turn to second after a throwing error by Altoona’s center fielder, Matt Fraizer. The Baysox now had their winning run at second base, and two outs left to make something happen.
After a single from TT Bowens, which kept Cook at second base, John Rhodes came up to the plate for the Baysox. Rhodes ended the game for Bowie with a long fly ball that hit off the bottom of the left field wall, scoring Cook as the winning run. John Rhodes, the Orioles’ No. 23 prospect, not only came up big for Bowie with his final swing but also picked up two hits earlier, finishing the night going 3-4 with a walk.
After dramatically ending Friday night’s game, the Baysox are back at it on Saturday night at 6:35 for game five of the six-game series against Altoona.
