RubberDucks rally from four down, outlast Baysox 10-5 to split series

Akron did not need one huge swing to save the finale. It needed patience, traffic on the bases and enough pressure on Chesapeake’s pitching to turn a 4-0 deficit into a 10-5 win Sunday at Prince George’s Stadium, giving the RubberDucks a road series split in the sixth and final game of the set.

The comeback started in the fifth, when Joe Lampe worked a walk and Cameron Barstad also reached on balls, setting up the kind of inning that forces a staff to keep making pitches in stressful counts. Akron scratched out three runs in the frame, a first sign that the lineup had stopped expanding the zone and started making the Baysox earn every out. By the sixth, Nick Mitchell delivered the blow that changed the feel of the game, launching a go-ahead three-run homer as part of a stretch of 10 unanswered Akron runs.

That was the real shape of the win. It was not a one-swing rescue job. The RubberDucks had to keep stacking quality at-bats after the early damage, then add three more runs in the seventh to turn a one-time deficit into a comfortable road result. Mitchell, a 22-year-old right fielder drafted by Toronto in the 2024 Competitive Balance Round A, came in with a .214 average, one home run and six RBIs, and his latest blast gave Akron the separator it had been building toward all afternoon.

Once the offense flipped the score, the bullpen finished the job. Adam Tulloch, a 2022 15th-round pick by Cleveland, earned the victory and improved to 1-0, while Tyson Neighbors fell to 0-3 for Chesapeake. That late stabilization mattered as much as the rally itself, because the Baysox had already clinched at least a split after winning Saturday’s 12-inning game. Akron’s response kept the set from slipping away and turned what could have been a discouraging road trip finish into a clean split.

The result pushed Akron to 13-8 and left Chesapeake at 10-10, with both clubs still sitting near the top of the Eastern League early on. For the RubberDucks, the takeaway was less about one blast than about the process that set it up: disciplined walks, pressure on the count, and enough bullpen control to hold the lead once the comeback had been built.