Baysox Gearing Up for First Pitch of Season on Thursday

The Bowie Baysox begin their 2011 season Thursday night by taking on long-time rival Harrisburg at 7 p.m.

Bowie hopes to be a force in the Class AA Eastern League once again. The Baysox made a good run at the playoffs last season, finishing with a 75-67 record and missing post-season play by just two games—behind Harrisburg.

The Senators then lost in the first round of the playoffs. The Altoona Curve won the league championship last year, the first in franchise history. Altoona beat the Trenton Thunder, three games to one, in the championship series.

Bowie’s official roster is scheduled to be released Thursday morning. .

The Baysox were in the middle of the road all the way around last year in manager Brad Komminsk’s final season. Bowie’s team batting average of .256 was eighth in the Eastern League, and the Baysox ranked fifth with a 3.97 earned run average.

The Orioles are trying hard to develop some young pitching talent, and that means the Baysox should have some good arms at Prince George’s Stadium this year. That’s been a key for Bowie the last few years as pitchers like Brian Matusz, Chris Tillman, Brad Bergesen, David Hernandez and Zach Britton have passed through and been a big reason that the Baysox have become playoff contenders.

Bowie plays Harrisburg in a four-game series this weekend and then heads down to Richmond to take on the Flying Squirrels in a three-game set early next weekend.

After that, the Baysox will make their 2011 home debut next Thursday with a game against the Erie SeaWolves at 7:05 p.m. That’s the start of a four-game weekend series that kicks off a seven-game home-stand. A three-game series with Akron follows before Bowie hits the road for a seven-game trip.

The Baysox play 14 of their first 21 games away from home.