Blue Wahoos Beat The Barons

May 28, 2016

Pensacola Blue Wahoos’ do-it-all Tony Renda, not only can play nearly every position on the field, he’s also a mathematician.

Renda, who’s batted first in the lineup 15 times this season, singled to start Friday’s game and scored the first run of the game when Blue Wahoos first baseman Kyle Parker knocked him in on a line drive to center field.

“It helps cause 76 percent of the time the team that scores first wins,” Renda said. “You might want to check that. But if you believe it long enough, it comes true.”

Well, Pensacola did go on to win Friday by beating the Birmingham Barons, 9-1, in front of its third straight Friday night sellout of 5,038 fans at Blue Wahoos Stadium.

He made up for going 0-5 the previous game to end his five game hitting streak by going 4-5, all singles, scoring a run, and walking. Renda, who came over in the Cincinnati Reds trade with the New York Yankees for closer Aroldis Chapman, is batting .307 (16-52) when leading off an inning. He leads the Blue Wahoos with a .293 average this season.

He played both second and third base Friday. Renda has been regulated to second base most of his professional career. But he’s played every position except for catcher, pitcher, first base and center field, so far.

“Hey, it’s fun,” he said about playing multiple positions for the Blue Wahoos. “I show up to the park and it’s a guessing game where I’m going to play that day.”

Blue Wahoos team improved to 28-20 and regained sole possession of first place again from the Biloxi Shuckers who dropped to 27-21 with a 1-0 loss to the Mobile BayBears.

Pensacola manager Pat Kelly said Renda always tells him that he’s played the position that he starts him in.

“He gets us going,” Kelly said. “He just sparks our offense and everyone else follows.”

Pensacola jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning. After Renda scored when Parker extended his hitting streak to six games, Pensacola center fielder Phillip Ervin, who had walked, scored on a bases-loaded walk by third baseman Eric Jagielo, who was tossed from the game for arguing a third strike call in the fifth inning.

Chicago White Sox No. 1 prospect Carson Fulmer continued to struggle with his control. The eighth pick overall in the 2015 draft, walked seven Pensacola batters in four innings. The Barons pitcher walked eight against the Jackson Generals on May 11. Birmingham pitchers walked 11 total Pensacola batters.

Still the Blue Wahoos had trouble scoring, leaving the bases loaded three times in the first five innings. In all, Pensacola left a season high 14 runners on base.

However, Barrett Astin in his third spot start for the injured Rookie Davis, went five innings and gave up one run on three hits and struck out three. He had no walks. Astin, who started for Pensacola last year, improved to 4-1 on the season with a 3.00 ERA.

“Pitching was the key,” Kelly said. “(Astin) gave up only three hits. It was a nice start.”

Pensacola finally pulled away when it scored three runs in the sixth inning to take a 6-1 lead.

The first run of the inning came when right fielder Sebastian Elizalde scored from third base on a ground out by Pensacola catcher Chad Wallach to make the score, 4-1. Blue Wahoos second baseman Zach Vincej then drove the ball through the left side of the infield to score DH Donald Lutz to go up, 5-1.

Pensacola went ahead, 6-1, when left fielder Jeff Gelalich beat out a bouncer to second base. Barons first baseman Jake Peter turned and fired to his catcher Jeremy Dowdy but Vincej slid around the tag on the bam-bam play.

The hit that gave the Blue Wahoos a big breather, though, came when Wallach capped the game off with a deep three-run shot over the left field fence in the seventh inning. It was his third blast of the year and the Blue Wahoos third homer in the past 11 games. The other two homers shot off the bat of Parker. Pensacola now has 25 home runs this season with 15 coming in May.

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