Blue Wahoos Clinch Five Game Series Over Braves

April 11, 2016

Pensacola Blue Wahoos manager Pat Kelly likes his talented young starters but one of his hurlers that stood out to him before the season started was 21-year-old Jackson Stephens.

Stephens put himself on the radar of Blue Wahoos fans by striking out a career high nine batters Sunday to lead Pensacola to a 4-2 victory at Trustmark Park in Pearl, MS. The right hander’s first victory in his Double-A debut helped the Wahoos to a 3-1 lead to clinch its season-opening five-game series with the Braves that ends Monday.

Stephens, who’s from Oxford, Ala., and has fished Pensacola’s waterways in the past, tied his career high in strikeouts in the fourth inning with eight when he whiffed Mississippi left fielder Dustin Peterson to start the inning. He then set a new career high at nine when he struck out Braves center fielder Sean Godfrey three batters later.

Stephens struck out the side in order in the second inning and then recorded three more strikeouts in the third inning. He left the game in the 5th inning having allowed two earned runs on four hits and two walks.

In a shaky first inning in which the first two batters singled off him, Stephens benefited from Blue Wahoos catcher Joe Hudson, who threw out both runners trying to steal second base. Hudson entered the season as the Cincinnati Reds best defensive catcher by Baseball America.

Blue Wahoos third baseman Eric Jagielo, who hit Pensacola’s first home run of the season Sunday, gave Pensacola a 4-2 cushion in the ninth inning when his sacrifice fly scored Beau Amaral from third. Amaral started the inning with a double.

Pensacola went ahead, 3-2, in the sixth inning when pinch hitter Brandon Dixon drove in right fielder Sebastian Elizade, who was hit by a pitch, on a deep fly ball to center field.

The Blue Wahoos scored first when third baseman Eric Jagielo smacked a two-out, two-run home run in the bottom of the third inning to put Pensacola up 2-0. Jagielo’s homer to center knocked in shortstop Zach Vincej, who had singled to shortstop and advanced to second on a throwing error by Ozzie Albies.

The Braves evened up the game, 2-2, in the bottom of the fourth inning when catcher Willians Astudillo doubled to center with two outs to drive in first baseman Jacob Shrader and third baseman Carlos Franco. Schrader was hit by a pitch and Franco walked.

The Blue Wahoos bats have come alive in the series, with 11 hits on Saturday and nine on Sunday. Leading Pensacola at the plate Sunday were Jagielo who was 2-4 with three RBIs, second baseman Tony Renda who went 3-4 and Amaral who was 2-5 with a double and scored a run.

The Pensacola bullpen also performed well against the Braves. El’Hajj Muhammad threw two hitless innings and struck out two in relief of Stephens. Meanwhile, Blue Wahoos reliever Carlos Gonzalez allowed one hit in two innings of work and set the Braves down 1-2-3 on strikeouts in the ninth to earn his first save of the season.

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News, Sports, TOP sports