Shuckers blank Chattanooga
The Biloxi Shuckers got near-flawless performances from their pitching tandem of Taylor Williams and Jon Perrin en route to a 4-0 shutout of the Chattanooga Lookouts at MGM Park.
With their fourth straight win, the Shuckers improved to 23-19 and kept pressure on the other two teams contending for first place in the Southern League's South Division. They entered play tied with the Mississippi Braves and one game behind the Pensacola Blue Wahoos in the race for the top of the standings. The shutout victory was the third on the season for the Shuckers.
Williams was given a higher pitch count than his previous starts in his continued recovery from Tommy John surgery, and he made the most of it by allowing only one hit and striking out four over 3.2 innings. Perrin (2-0) was nearly as good in relief, allowing only two singles and a walk in 4.1 innings to keep the Lookouts off the board.
The Shuckers jumped out to an early lead in the first inning, getting doubles from Mauricio Dubon and Michael Reed on the first two pitches from Ryan Eades (1-1) to score the first run. Dubon drove in another run in the third inning on a sacrifice fly after Johnny Davis led off the inning with a triple. Dubon was 2-for-3, collecting his 20th multi-hit game and he leads the league with 51 hits. He also earned his league-leading 23rd stolen base which is second in all of the minors.
In the fourth, Art Charles hit an RBI double with two outs to extend the lead to 3-0. An unearned run came home in the sixth when Charles reached on an error by first baseman Jonathan Rodriguez to score Dustin DeMuth with the fourth run.
Nick Ramirez pitched into a jam in the ninth inning, but Matt Ramsey got the final two outs of the game to earn his league-leading 12th save.
The Shuckers will try to make it five wins in a row at 6:35 p.m. Saturday as RHP Jorge Lopez is scheduled to start against RHP Steve Gonzalvez for the Lookouts.
This story was originally published May 19, 2017 at 9:54 PM with the headline "Shuckers blank Chattanooga."