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Wahoos Beat Jacksonville
August 28, 2016
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos won the first half of the Southern League South Division and now are in the hunt to win the second half, too.
The Blue Wahoos defeated Jacksonville, 5-3, thanks in part to a two-out, two-run homer by Brandon Dixon and pulled within 1.5 games of current frontrunner Mississippi Braves.
Mississippi lost its seventh game in a row and is 33-27 in the South Division and are 67-62 overall. Meanwhile, Pensacola is 32-29 in the second half and are having the club’s best season in its five-year history at 73-58 overall. Pensacola won five in a row starting Aug. 17 and are 12-5 since then.
The Blue Wahoos pulled out another victory Saturday when they scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning when Pensacola shortstop Zach Vincej hit a sacrifice fly to left field that allowed both center fielder Jeff Gelalich and left fielder Phillip Ervin to score when Jacksonville left fielder Austin Dean threw the ball to home off the mark. The two runs put the Blue Wahoos ahead, 5-3.
Pensacola closer Alejandro Chacin then entered the game in the ninth and saved his 26th game for the Blue Wahoos record, surpassing Zack Weiss, who had 25 for Pensacola last season.
Pensacola manager Pat Kelly, who was celebrating his 61st birthday, likes the way his team is playing, especially Chacin, who allowed two hits and struck out two in his one inning.
“The players have confidence behind him,” Kelly said. “There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that he was going to finish that one out.”
Pensacola jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when Dixon smashed a two-out, two run homer to left field. Dixon, who last hit one out of the park on Aug. 2, now has a team-leading 15 homers and 61 RBIs. He has a seven game hit streak and is batting .469 (15-32) with one homer and seven RBIs.
Dixon, who has 28 hits in August compared to 31 in June and July combined, said he turned things around working with Cincinnati Reds instructor Hall of Fame shortstop Barry Larkin on being more consistent and driving the ball.
“I’m just driving the ball more and trying to make more consistent contact,” said the 24-year-old Dixon, who played for the Arizona Wildcats in college. “You get hot sometimes and sometimes things just don’t go your way.”
Ervin generated a run in the sixth inning. He leadoff with a hit by a pitch, stole second for his 34th steal of the year, move to third on a ground out by Vincej and beat a diving Jacksonville catcher Cam Maron to home plate for a 3-0 lead.
“He had Billy Hamilton in him there,” Kelly said about the Cincinnati Reds base thief. “He got a great break to the plate. It was outstanding.”
After allowing 10 runs in eight innings in his last two starts, Pensacola starter Tyler Mahle returned to his pitching form when he came up with the Blue Wahoos mid-season.
Mahle had retired 12 batters in a row before Jacksonville right fielder Alex Glenn smashed a two-run, line drive home run with no outs to pull within, 3-2, of Pensacola. The 21-year-old Mahle tossed 6.1 innings, gave up two hits, two runs, three walks and struck out seven.
Jacksonville’s Glenn, who is hitting .296 this season, has four homers and 12 RBIs in his last 11 games.
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