Jacksonville Wins Fourth In A Row Over Blue Wahoos

June 10, 2015

With a fastball that can reach 100, a knee-buckling curveball and deceptive changeup, Robert Stephenson has Southern League hitters under his spell.

The Blue Wahoos pitcher threw his fourth straight dominating game with eight strike outs and three hits in seven innings but lost the one run game, 2-1, to in-state rival Jacksonville Suns in front of 3,481 at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium.

Pensacola manager Pat Kelly said with “consistency” Stephenson can pitch at any level.

“I saw him his last year coming out of high school and thought this was what he was going to do,” Kelly said. “To me, if you can throw three pitches like that over the plate you can pitch anywhere. It’s just a matter of consistency.”

Stephenson, the Cincinnati Reds top prospect for the second year in a row, has now struck out 71 batters this season, which is third in the Southern League. At one point Tuesday, he struck out five of six batters he faced.

Stephenson is second in the league with 10.46 strikeouts per nine innings and third in opponents’ batting average against him at .191.

Tuesday’s game also marked the first time in his career, that the 22-year-old has thrown at least seven innings three games in a row. He’d like to go nine, he said.

“I’ve been struggling a lot and it’s good to turn things around,” he said. “You’d like to get all your struggling done in the minor leagues so by the time you get up there, you are ready to go.”

His strikeouts mostly came on off-speed pitches ranging from 77 mph to 88 mph. But he did strike out Jacksonville catcher Chadd Krist on a 99 mph fastball.

“Everything is pretty much mechanically locked in,” Stephenson said. “I’m confident now I could get hitters out at the Triple-A or big league level.”

The loss to Jacksonville dropped the Blue Wahoos to 22-35 and last place in the Southern League South Division. The Suns improved to 26-32 to remain in fourth place in the division.

Pensacola has the Southern League’s worst record in one-run games at 6-17 for a .240 winning percentage. They’ve lost 10 of their last 11 games.

Center fielder Kenny Wilson singled and stole second base to lead off the sixth inning. He then scored on a two-out double by first baseman Viosergy Ross, who had struck out in his first two at bats, to take the lead for good, 2-1.

Pensacola knotted the game, 1-1, in the fifth inning when center fielder Beau Amaral, who went 2-3 and is batting .291 in 16 games since May 20, singled sharply up the middle to score catcher Cam Maron, who had doubled to the left center gap.

Jacksonville right fielder Carlos Lopez got the first hit of the game for the Suns on a double in the fourth inning off of Stephenson, moved to third on a wild pitch and then scored the first run, 1-0, on a ground out to shortstop by left fielder Ryan Rieger.

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News, Sports