Wahoos Knock Off Braves

July 27, 2013

The Blue Wahoos offense erupted for five early runs and held on to knock off the Mississippi Braves 5-3 on Friday night at Trustmark Park. Pensacola’s victory forces a rubber game between the two squads on Saturday night.

Things started quickly for Pensacola. In the first inning, Chris Berset slashed a two-run, two-out double down the left field line to give the Wahoos a 2-0 lead. Travis Mattair then brought Berset home with a single up the middle to make it 3-0.

In the third inning, Pensacola strung together four straight two out singles, culminating in RBI base knocks from Berset and Mattair to open up a 5-0 lead. Berset and Mattair combined to go 4-for-6 with a run and five runs batted in.

All of the damage came off Mississippi starter Michael Lee who fell to 5-7 by allowing five runs on seven hits in five innings.

Meanwhile, Pensacola starter Josh Smith was cruising through four shutout innings before running into trouble in the fifth inning. The Braves loaded the bases against the Smith, who escaped the jam by allowing two runs on two sacrifice flies from Robby Hefflinger and Mycal Jones. Smith (8-8) went just five frames for Pensacola, allowing two runs on five hits with two strikeouts.

Drew Hayes entered in the sixth inning and gave up an RBI single to Jose Martinez to cut the lead to 5-3 before being replaced by Lee Hyde. The Wahoos southpaw got out of the inning unscathed and ended up extending his scoreless inning streak to 25 innings with 1.1 spotless frames.

Trevor Bell came on in the eighth inning and allowed just one hit while striking out to pick up the two-inning save. It was Bell’s seventh save of the year in as many opportunities.

The series wraps up with the rubber game on Saturday night at 6 p.m. Pensacola will look to improve on its 5-0 record in rubber games with Carlos Contreras (0-1, 6.75) on the mound against Mississippi’s Ian Thomas (4-6, 3.14)

story by Kevin Burke

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