Barons slip past Shuckers
The Biloxi Shuckers’ second-half woes continued against the Birmingham Barons on Wednesday night at Regions Field, as the visitors walked away with a 3-1 defeat. Biloxi stranded six men on base, and went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
Birmingham (4-2, 33-43) broke the scoreless game with a solo tally in the fifth. Eudy Pina drew the first walk of the game against Brooks Hall with one out, advanced to second on a balk with Keon Barnum at the plate, and moved up to third after Barnum’s fly out to right field. Jeremy Dowdy ripped a single up the middle on the first pitch of the at-bat to plate Pina.
Hall was brilliant in his spot start to open up the series. The Anderson, SC native tied a team-high with seven innings pitched, and allowed one run on two hits, a walk and two strikeouts. The 26-year-old needed just 75 pitches in his third start of the season (11th appearance).
Biloxi (1-5, 40-35) had opportunities throughout the night to break through the scoreboard, but came up empty in the early stages. Jacob Nottingham (1x3, 2B, BB) reached on a fielder’s choice and made it to third on a groundout by Nick Ramirez (0x4) and a fly out by Gabriel Noriega (0x2, BB). Nottingham made it to third again in the fourth after doubling down the line in left with one out, but back-to-back groundouts by Ramirez and Noriega ended the threat.
The Shuckers had a chance to tie the game in the sixth when Garrett Cooper (2x4, 2B) doubled for the 21st time this season with two outs. The extra-base hit extended the first baseman’s hitting streak to seven games, and on-base streak to 20. Nottingham walked on four pitches to put runners on first and second, but Ramirez grounded out for a third time to end the inning.
Biloxi snapped the trend the seventh on a game-tying, infield single by Johnny Davis (1x4, RBI). Noriega started the inning with a ground ball up the middle. Javier Betancourt (0x2, BB) hit a slow roller to the right side to advance the runner 90 ft., ending the night for Barons’ starter, Jordan Guerrero.
Peter Tago (4-1) came out of the Birmingham bullpen and retired Angel Ortega (1x3) on a deep fly to right, allowing Noriega to make it to third. Davis squibbed a ball to short and legged out an infield single, scoring Noriega to tie the game.
All-Star Steve Peterson (7-1) relieved Hall to start the eighth inning and ran into trouble in his league-leading 35th appearance. The southpaw gave up a leadoff single to Barnum, who then moved up to second on a sacrifice bunt by Dowdy. Peterson then walked Joey DeMichele to put runners on first and second for Eddy Alvarez, who flew out to left.
Shuckers’ manager Mike Guerrero brought in Tyler Spurlin for the matchup against Adam Engel, but the Barons’ centerfielder cracked a ground-rule double over the wall in right-center to bring Barnum home to put Biloxi in a one-run deficit. Keenyn Walker followed with an RBI single to left to put the visitors in a two-run hole going into the ninth.
Tago struck out the first two batters in the final frame before inducing a ground out off the bat Noriega to end the game.
Biloxi will look to snap its three-game losing streak and even the series at 7:05 p.m. Thursday night at Regions Field. It has yet to be determined who will take the mound for the Shuckers, as the Barons will send out RHP Brandon Brennan (1-5, 10/16).
This story was originally published June 29, 2016 at 10:10 PM with the headline "Barons slip past Shuckers."