Skipworth Homers, Wahoos Lose To Birmingham

July 20, 2015

Pensacola Blue Wahoos catcher Kyle Skipworth set another franchise record Sunday with his seventh home run blast in a month and now has nine homers on the season.

On Thursday against the Birmingham Barons, Skipworth had set the team record with five homers in five straight games. He now has six homers in the past seven games and seven homers in the past 10 games.

Despite Skipworth lifting a fly ball over the center field wall for a solo home run in the seventh inning, Birmingham won, 11-3, Sunday at Regions Field and captured the five-game series, 3-2.

The Barons broke the game open with seven runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to go up, 9-0. Birmingham shortstop Tim Anderson had a two-run single and DH Courtney Hawkins hit a two-run home run.

Mostly the Barons relied on the arm of the Chicago White Sox No. 2 prospect Frankie Montas, who was called up for one day July 17 to the Major Leagues, where he served as the 26th man for a doubleheader.

Montas, whose fastball has been clocked as high as 102 mph this season, blanked Pensacola over five innings, allowing just two hits—a double by third baseman Seth Mejias-Brean in the fourth inning and a single by shortstop Zach Vincej in the fifth.

He also walked one and struck out eight in Sunday’s game. Montas improved to 3-1 in 16 starts in Double-A and lowered his ERA to 2.31. He has given up just three earned runs in his last 18 innings for a 1.50 ERA since June 28.

Mejias-Brean, who was 2-4, has gotten a hit in 13 of his last 16 games, including five multi-hit games. He is now batting .259 on the year.

Vincej went 1-3 and walked and has a hit in 11 of his last 12 games, after going 0-4 Saturday to end his 10-game hitting streak.

Pensacola is now 13-10 in the second half of the Southern League season (25-43 first half) and fell into second place in the South Division.

Meanwhile, the Barons improved to 17-5 in the second half (33-36 first half) and remains in first place in the North Division.

The Blue Wahoos return home to play the Jacksonville Suns July 20-21 and the Biloxi Shuckers July 22-26.

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