Pensacola Falls To Mississippi

August 24, 2015

It was Princess Night at the ballpark and all the Pensacola Blue Wahoos wished for was its first dance at the ball – the playoffs that is.

In its first game in franchise history with post season implications, Pensacola didn’t get its fairytale ending Monday.

Despite Phillip Ervin slugging his second home run in two games, the Mississippi Braves held on in the opener of the five-game series for a 3-1 win in front of 4,357 fans, including several little “Frozen” princesses, at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium.

Mississippi took back first place in the South Division over Pensacola by a half game in the second half of the Southern League season. The Braves, who have recorded a better second-half record than first-half record the past seven seasons, are now 31-24 and Pensacola is 31-25.

Blue Wahoos manager Pat Kelly said with 14 games left this season and Pensacola playing both Mississippi and the Mobile BayBears at home, he knows the Blue Wahoos can qualify for the playoffs.

“We just have to win every series,” he said. “It’s a pretty simple formula.”

Mississippi starter Lucas Sims was coming off a 1-0 victory in which he threw 5.1 innings of scoreless, one-hit ball against the Birmingham Barons.

Throwing a steady stream of 90-plus mph fastballs against Pensacola, Sims allowed just three hits and recorded a season-high 10 strike outs against the Blue Wahoos. His only run was on Ervin’s solo blast.

The Braves’ Sims improved to 3-2 this season with a 4.19 ERA and now has allowed just two runs in his last 17.1 innings for a 1.06 earned-run average.

“Sims pitched a helluva game,” Kelly said. “He had really good stuff.”

Meanwhile, Pensacola starter Daniel Wright also gave the Blue Wahoos a strong outing, throwing seven innings and allowing three earned runs on six hits, while striking out seven Braves batters. The right-hander retired the first seven Mississippi batters he faced, striking out four, all on off-speed pitches.

“He pitched seven innings for us and allowed us to rest our bullpen a bit,” Kelly said. “That was good. He did a great job, he just had that little hiccup there in the fourth inning.”

Mississippi scored first getting three in the fourth. Braves second baseman Levi Hyams scored on a ground out and third baseman Rio Ruiz hit a two-out, two-run line drive over the left field wall to put Mississippi ahead, 3-0.

Ervin, the Cincinnati Reds No. 9 prospect according to MLB, hit two of Pensacola’s three hits off Sims. He went 2-3 with a double and solo blast to left field in the fourth inning Sunday that pulled Pensacola within, 3-1, of Mississippi.

He had four hits in a row between his third and fourth games in Double-A – two of them home runs. Ervin has 14 home runs and 66 RBIs this season counting his numbers for the High-A Daytona Tortugas.

Ervin said he’s relaxing more at the plate after going 0-5 in his first two games and 4-7 with a double, two homers and three RBIs in the last two.

“I like it right now,” Ervin said, chuckling, about Double-A pitching. “I was putting pressure on myself to get that first hit. Once I got it, I’ve been able to relax and have a little more fun.”

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News, Sports