AIKEN - Reeling in the South Coast League standings for much of the past three weeks, the Aiken Foxhounds desperately needed a quality start Thursday night to open a nine-game home stand at Roberto Hernandez Stadium.

And even though they got it from 41-year-old player-coach Anthony Telford, the Foxhounds still caught all the bad breaks and continued their slide.

Telford turned in seven strong innings, but Aiken got no timely hitting in a 2-1 loss to the Bradenton Juice.

The Foxhounds (22-26, 0-3 second half) dropped their fourth in a row and lost for the 14th time in their past 17 games. They probably shouldn't have, though. Aiken stranded 11 runners and had eight men in scoring position with less than one out who failed to score.

They had the bases loaded with one out in the fourth, the bases loaded with no outs in the seventh and a runner on third with no outs in the bottom of the ninth, and they failed to score each time.

It cost Telford a loss in his best effort of the season. Pitching like he was 25 again, Telford allowed only two late runs on five hits. Using the kind of craftiness that led to nine seasons in the big leagues, he struck out eight and walked no one.

He outdueled Bradenton starter Pat Ford - who is 18 years younger - for most of the night, carrying a 1-0 lead into the seventh. But Ford got the late run support before exiting and earned the win after allowing one run on seven hits in six innings.

First-place Bradenton (28-20, 4-0) used Brenan Herrera's RBI single and a Foxhounds infield error, which scored the unearned game-winning run, in the seventh for its sixth consecutive victory.

For Aiken, Chad Miller drove in Reinaldo Ramirez, who went 3-for-3, in the fifth.

The game was a low-scoring pitcher's duel.

The Foxhounds had runners on the corners with no outs in the third, after Ben Bando's walk and Ramirez's single. But Ford struck out two batters and got a flyout to preserve the scoreless tie.

Miller gave Telford a run of support in the fifth, driving in Ramirez with a two-out RBI single to give Aiken a 1-0 lead.

Telford gave up two runs in the seventh to surrender the lead. Eddie Kim doubled when his grounder hit first base and scored on Brenan Herrera's two-out bloop single to left. Herrera scored an unearned run on an infield error to make it 2-1 Bradenton.

Reach Steve Sanders at (706) 823-3216 or steven.l.sanders@augustachronicle.com.