Birmingham blasts Biloxi, 9-1
The Biloxi Shuckers winning streak was snapped at three after Saturday’s 9-1 loss to the Birmingham Barons at MGM Park. In the loss, Javier Betancourt went 1-for-3 and stretched his hitting streak to nine games. The loss also snapped a streak of four straight wins over the Barons and three straight at MGM Park.
Birmingham (10-13, 39-54) attacked early, plating three runs in the opening frame to jump out to the 3-0 lead.
Adam Engel extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a leadoff double to left and scored on a sacrifice attempt by Eddy Alvarez that was thrown away by catcher Parker Berberet, allowing Alvarez to advance to third. After a groundout by Courtney Hawkins, Trey Michalczewski drove a double to the wall in left-center to score Alvarez for the second run of the inning. Brady Shoemaker cracked a double to left to bring across Michalczewski to put Biloxi in a three-run hole after half an inning.
The Barons scratched across another run in the second to increase the Shuckers’ to deficit four with another leadoff double, this time by Ryan Leonards, and a run-scoring single to center off the bat of Keenyn Walker.
Biloxi (9-14, 48-44) grabbed a run in the home half of the second to cut Birmingham’s lead to 4-1.
Jacob Nottingham was hit by a pitch with one out to give the Shuckers their first base runner. After a groundout by Gabriel Noriega, Betancourt tripled past a diving Walker in right field to extend his hitting streak to nine games and bring in Nottingham. Betancourt has also hit in 13 of 14, batting .390 over that period.
Wei-Chung Wang (4-5) entered the game with four earned runs allowed in 26 2/3 innings to start the second half, but left Saturday night’s contest with five runs (four earned) in 4 2/3 frames. The native of Taiwan gave up nine hits, walked two and struck out three on 78 pitches (50 strikes).
The southpaw exited the game after allowing the fifth run of the game on an infield single by Shoemaker to the hole on the left side. Angel Ortega cut the ball off in shallow left, but mishandled the exchange, allowing Hawkins to score from second on the play.
Tristan Archer was the first reliever summoned from the Shuckers’ bullpen and struck out Leonards to escape the fifth without further damage. The right-hander worked a perfect sixth and set down the first two batters of the seventh before yielding a single to Shoemaker. Archer lowered his ERA to 3.32 and now has 53 strikeouts in 57 innings over 34 appearances.
Mitch Lambson made his Biloxi debut and issued a free pass while striking out two in 1.1 innings of work. Tyler Spurlin started the ninth and allowed three runs before being lifted for Gage Smith with runners at first and second. The sidewinding right-hander gave up a run-scoring single to Walker to put the Shuckers in an eight-run hole heading into the bottom of the ninth.
Tyler Burnette (1-2) earned the win in his second start of the season, allowing one run on three hits and four strikeouts in six innings for the quality start.
Biloxi will look to rebound in game four of the five-game series at MGM Park on Sunday. RHP Jorge Ortega (1-8, 5.06) will take the mound for the Shuckers, while LHP David Holmberg (5-6, 3.90) toes the rubber for the Barons. First pitch is scheduled for 5:10 p.m., with coverage starting at 4:50 p.m. on the Biloxi Shuckers’ Radio Network’s flagship station WGCM 1240 AM, 100.9 FM, Pascagoula’s WPMO 1580 AM and the TuneIn Radio app.
Sunday will be McDonald’s Family Fun Day, with pregame autographs from Shuckers’ players, and a post-game catch on the field.
This story was originally published July 16, 2016 at 10:28 PM with the headline "Birmingham blasts Biloxi, 9-1."