Shuckers nip Pensacola in record-setting marathon

It took a team-record five hours and eleven minutes, but the Biloxi Shuckers defeated the Pensacola Blue Wahoos 5-3 in 15 innings to extend their winning streak to three games.

Bubba Derby (1-0) tossed five shutout innings in relief and even delivered an RBI single in the 15th inning to earn his first Double-A win.

After Pensacola squandered scoring chances in the 11th, 12th, and 14th, the Shuckers finally put a threat together in the 15th, loading the bases on three walks off reliever Domingo Tapia (1-1). With two outs and nowhere to go, Houle took a 3-2 pitch for a ball and brought in Michael Reed to give the Shuckers a 4-3 lead. Batting for himself, Derby then drove in an insurance run with his first professional hit and RBI to extend the lead to 5-3.

The Shuckers drew first blood on Saturday in the third inning, off Blue Wahoos starter Keury Mella when Dustin DeMuth drew a bases-loaded walk to force in Dustin Houle. Pensacola would even things up in the bottom half of the inning off Shuckers starter Jon Perrin, bringing across an unearned run on an RBI single from Josh Van Meter.

The game was delayed 16 minutes in the top of the third as a bank of lights went out above Blue Wahoos Stadium. Play resumed in short order before either starting pitcher had to be replaced.

Biloxi went ahead again in the fifth when DeMuth singled to drive in Mauricio Dubon. But the Blue Wahoos took the lead right back when Van Meter brought in two with a double off Perrin. The Shuckers righty completed five innings, allowing three runs, two earned, on four hits and three strikeouts.

Art Charles pinch-hit for Perrin in the sixth and brought in the tying run on a sacrifice fly to center field. Tayler Scott and Nick Ramirez gave the Shuckers three combined frames of shutout relief through the eighth inning. Tristan Archer pitched a clean ninth inning to send the game to extras.

Archer and Blue Wahoos closer Jimmy Herget traded zeroes in the 10th, and Derby (1-0) escaped two bases-loaded jams in the 11th and 12th, as well as second-and-third threat in the 14th.

Derby's fifth inning of relief went quietly, as he struck out his sixth and seventh batters of the game en route to a 5-3 victory.

The game featured 13 pitchers, eight from Pensacola and 26 runners left in scoring position. The Wahoos stranded eight of them in extra frames, six in scoring position.

The game duration on Saturday night passed the 4:26 duration on June 6, 2015, against Mobile at MGM Park. The 15 innings matched the affair played with Montgomery on June 20, 2015. Biloxi is now 2-1 in extra innings games this season and now 8-5 on the road this season.

This story was originally published April 30, 2017 at 7:05 AM with the headline "Shuckers nip Pensacola in record-setting marathon."