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Tennessee Smokes The Wahoos In Twin Bill
July 31, 2012
The Tennessee Smokies swept the Pensacola Blue Wahoos in the doubleheader at Smokies Park in Kodak, Tenn. on Monday night. The Smokies took game one 6-3 before edging out the Wahoos in game two 3-2. Billy Hamilton stole third base in the sixth inning for his 116th steal of the season, his 12th with the Blue Wahoos. He is now 29 steals shy of the record.
Tennessee wasted no time in the first game getting on the board first with five first-inning runs against Wahoos starter Mark Serrano. Matt Szczur plated the first run of the inning when he came home on a double by Junior Lake. Juntin Bour brought home Logan Watkins a batter later with a base hit to put the Smokies ahead 2-0. With two on, Greg Rohan cleared the bases with his fifth home run of the season opening up the score making it 5-0.
Mike Brenly made it 6-0 with an RBI single in the fifth scoring Lake from third. Pensacola would cut into the lead in ensuing frame. Hamilton singled home Andrew Means for the Blue Wahoos’ first run of the game in the sixth. Hamilton scored later in the inning with Ryan LaMarre on a Bryson Smith triple but that’s all the Blue Wahoos would get.
Serrano (6-3) took the loss after giving up a season-high six runs on 10 hits over four innings. He struck out five and walked one. Smokies starter Eric Jokisch (7-2) picked up the win after working a seven inning complete game. All three runs he allowed were earned. He faced the minimum and surrendered just one hit over the first five innings of the game.
In game two, the Blue Wahoos and Smokies traded zeros through the first three innings before the Smokies broke through in the fourth. Tony Cingrani uncorked a wild pitch to Mike Burgess allowing Nate Samson to score from third to give the Smokies a 1-0 lead. The Wahoo starter ran into problems again in the fifth. Dustin Harrington scored from third on an errant throw to the plate on a fielder’s choice groundball to the shortstop. The second run in the inning scored when a pickoff attempt at first base got away into foul territory allowing Szczur to score from third making it 3-0 Smokies.
Mark Fleury added some excitement in the seventh when he blasted his first home run of the season with a man on. His shot completely cleared the stadium just inside the right field foul pole. That made it 3-2, and that was as close as the Wahoos would get.
All three Smokies runs were charged to Cingrani (5-3), but only one was earned. He took the loss after going 4.1 innings. The lefty struck out three, walked two and allowed three hits. Casey Weathers (4-1) earned the win out of the bullpen for Tennessee. He worked a scoreless fifth to pick up his fourth win of the season. Despite allowing the home run to Fleury in the seventh, Frank Batista (19) still earned the save.
The two teams will continue the series on Tuesday. RHP Kyle Lotzkar will get the nod for the Blue Wahoos against Smokies RHP Dae-Eun Rhee. First pitch is slated for 6:15 p.m. central time at Smokies Park in Kodak, Tenn.
By Tommy Thrall
Pictured: Mark Fleury went 2-for-3 with his first home run of the year Monday night against Tennessee. Photo by Chris Nelson for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
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