Baysox Notebook: Bowie Getting Hot After Slow Start

After a less than stellar start to the season, the Baysox have started to turn the corner during the past several games.

Following losses in four of its first five games, Bowie has now won four of its last five heading into Monday’s game against visiting Akron.

The , in the second game of Sunday’s double-header after beating the SeaWolves, 11-7, earlier in the day, a game during which Bowie erased a seven-run fourth inning deficit. Trailing 7-0, the Baysox scored three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning before tallying eight more in the fifth, an inning capped by outfielder Jeff Fiorentino’s 3-run home run.

Bowie defeated and.

Earlier in the week, the Baysox dropped the first two games of their series with Richmond before beating the Wednesday to avoid being swept.

OFFENSE STARTING TO HEAT UP

After failing to score more than four runs in any of its first seven games, and being held to two runs or less five times during that span, Bowie’s offense finally started to find its rhythm during its series with Erie.

Prior to being limited to one run in , the Baysox had scored 20 runs in their previous two games.

Bowie has hit at least one home run in each of the last seven games, with Brandon Waring and Ronnie Welty each belting two during that span.

Fiorentino, who hit the key 3-run homer Sunday, leads the team with a .296 batting average. He is 7-of-21 (.333) during the last six games and has produced five of his seven RBI in the Baysox’s last two games.

Waring has a team-high eight RBI, four of which came during Bowie’s . Waring hit 22 home runs and drove in 70 RBI for the Baysox last season after winning Carolina League MVP in 2009 at Single-A Frederick. During that season, he batted .273 with 26 home runs and 90 RBI.

UP NEXT

Bowie hosts Akron, the Double-A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians, Monday night at 7:05, the beginning of a three-game series.

The Aeros (5-6) lost both games of their double-header against Reading Sunday and have now dropped three games in a row.

Left-handed pitcher Kelvin De La Cruz (0-2, 0.90 ERA) is Akron’s scheduled starter for Monday while right-hander Zach Clark (1-0, 2.25) is scheduled to make the start for the Baysox.

Aeros’ outfielders Jordan Henry (.333), John Drennen (.310) and Tim Fedroff (.300) are each hitting .300 or better. Drennen leads the team with two home runs. Meanwhile, catcher Chun Hsiu-Chen, who is batting just .250 thus far, hit .315 with 12 home runs and 69 RBI between Single-A Lake County and Single-A Kinston last season. He is rated by Indians Prospect Insider as the 20th-best prospect in the Indians’ organization.

Meanwhile, reliever Nick Hagadone, a former first-round pick of the Red Sox, ended last season ranked by Baseball America as the 10th-best prospect in Cleveland’s organization. Hagadone, a 6-foot-5, 230-pound lefty, has tossed six scoreless innings so far this year, during which he’s recorded six strikeouts, is yet to yield a walk and has allowed just two hits.