Braves Slip By Wahoos

June 28, 2013

The Mississippi Braves took their second straight game against the Pensacola Blue Wahoos, 3-2, on Thursday night at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium in front of a capacity crowd of 5,038. It was the 15th sellout of the season. Despite the loss, the Blue Wahoos remain just a game out of first place behind the Jacksonville Suns.

Daniel Renken got the start for Pensacola and gave up a solo homer to Jose Martinez with two outs in the first inning to give the Braves a 1-0 lead. Renken settled down in the next couple frames before the Wahoos tied it up in the last of the third on an RBI groundout from Yorman Rodriguez.

Mississippi took the lead for good, though, in the fourth. After a leadoff walk to Edward Salcedo, Christian Marrero blasted an RBI double to right-center to put the Braves on top 2-1. Marrero would come around to score on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Barrett Kleinknecht.

Pensacola would get a run right back in the last of the fourth inning on a leadoff homer from Marquez Smith, his first blast as a Blue Wahoo. That would be all of the offense though, as neither team would scratch across a run in the final five frames.

The Wahoos had the tying run in scoring position in the fifth and sixth innings but weren’t able to push across the tying tallies against the best pitching staff in the league. Gus Schlosser (6-2) picked up the victory for Mississippi by allowing just two runs on five hits in five innings. James Hoyt, Andrew Russell, and Mark Lamm allowed just one hit over the final four frames with Lamm picking up his 10th save of the year.

Renken fell to 2-6 for the Wahoos, despite a quality start. He allowed three runs on five hits in six innings while striking out six.

In his return to Pensacola, outfielder Donald Lutz picked up two hits to lead the Wahoos’ offense. Yorman Rodriguez singled in the fifth to extend his Double-A hitting streak to nine games and overall hitting streak (combined with High-A Bakersfield) to 18 games.

The two teams will square off in the rubber match of the five-game set on Friday night. Josh Smith (5-6, 3.65) gets the call for Pensacola against Mississippi’s Aaron Northcraft (3-5, 3.86).

story by Kevin Burke

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