Blue Wahoos top Shuckers
The Biloxi Shuckers’ losing streak stretched to six after dropping Sunday afternoon’s contest with the Pensacola Blue Wahoos, 4-3, in walk-off fashion at Blue Wahoos Stadium.
The Shuckers set a club record with 18 strikeouts, and out-hit the Blue Wahoos, 11-8, but left nine men on base in their fourth walk-off loss of the season.
Johnny Davis (1x1, HR, RBI, R) slugged his first career home run to open the ninth and tie the game at 3-3.
Stephen Kohlscheen (2-3) took the mound in the bottom of the ninth and struck out Taylor Sparks to begin the final frame, but gave up a double to Zach Vincej. The veteran right-hander intentionally walked Juan Duran to set up a double play, but Eric Jagielo smacked a single to the wall in center to bring home Vincej for the winning run.
Pensacola (8-9, 49-38) jumped out to a 3-0 lead and plated two runs in the third inning for a second consecutive night to take an early lead.
After striking out Joe Hudson, Taylor Jungmann walked his counterpart, Rookie Davis. Alex Blandino followed with a single, and Brandon Dixon brought both runners home with a double to the wall in left-center.
The Blue Wahoos added an insurance run in the sixth with a leadoff triple off the bat of Vincej and a sacrifice fly by Duran.
Jungmann (0-2) set a club-record and new personal career high with 12 strikeouts on the night, topping Tyler Wagner’s 11 on July 24, 2015. Jungman’s 12 strikeouts marked the first time he has touched double digits in strikeouts over his career.
The Texas product allowed three runs on six hits, a walk and those 12 strikeouts. The 26-year-old needed 98 pitches (65 strikes) in 4.2 innings of work, leaving in the bottom of the fifth with runners on the corners.
Sidewinder, Gage Smith, took over for the Shuckers’ starter and got out of the fifth when Dixon was caught stealing second to end the frame. The right-hander set down the side in order in the sixth to complete his eighth appearance of the season.
Biloxi (5-12, 44-42) used another late-inning rally to break up a shutout, plating two in the eighth to trim the deficit to one.
Angel Ortega (2x5) grounded out to third against reliever El’Hajj Muhammad to start the inning, but three straight singles to right field by Brett Phillips (1x5, R), Garrett Cooper (2x4, R) and Nick Ramirez (1x4) loaded the bases and ended the day for Muhammad.
Gabriel Noriega (2x4, RBI) greeted Alejandro Chacin (4-1) with a run-scoring, line-drive single to center to bring home Phillips and get the Shuckers on the board. Chris McFarland (0x4, RBI) tapped a dribbler in front of the mound and was thrown out at first, but Cooper scored the second run of the inning on the play to bring Biloxi within a run. Parker Bereberet (0x4) struck out swinging to end the inning.
Junior Rincon took over for Smith to start the seventh, and retired all six men through two innings with four strikeouts. The native of the Dominican Republic has set down all 24 batters he has faced in six outings since joining Biloxi with nine strikeouts.
Tyrone Taylor went 1-for-5 on Sunday and extended his on-base streak to 11 games. Ortega’s two hits was his sixth multi-hit contest over his first 17 Biloxi games.
The Shuckers will look to avoid dropping their second consecutive series in game three at 6:30 Monday night at Blue Wahoos Stadium. LHP Wei-Chung Wang (3-4, 3.70) takes his 1.31, second-half ERA into the matchup for Biloxi against RHPJackson Stephens (6-6, 3.40) for Pensacola.
This story was originally published July 10, 2016 at 8:04 PM with the headline "Blue Wahoos top Shuckers."