Wahoos Drop Series Finale To Jacksonville Sons

September 1, 2016

The Pensacola Blue Wahoos head into its last five games Thursday against the Birmingham Barons, chasing the Mississippi Braves for the Southern League South Division second half title.

After winning the first four games of the series against visiting Jacksonville, the Suns picked up a win in the finale, 4-1, in front of 4,277 at Blue Wahoos Stadium. Pensacola reached 302,340 in attendance for the season, which is the fifth straight year it surpassed 300,000 since its inaugural year in 2012.

Pensacola, which already captured the first half winning a franchise record 41 games, is 1.5 games behind Mississippi, which defeated the Chattanooga Lookouts, 6-2. The Braves are 36-28 (70-63), while Pensacola dropped to 35-30 (76-58).

Blue Wahoos manager Pat Kelly congratulated the Blue Wahoos fans and its front office on drawing more than 300,000 fans for five consecutive seasons.

“That’s a great accomplishment,” Kelly said. “Usually, you have a honeymoon period because it’s the new thing in town. This has been great.”

The highlight for Pensacola fans besides the attendance was Pensacola second baseman Brandon Dixon hitting a bullet over the right field fence in the sixth inning for his second homer in the five-game series.

The solo shot was his 16th of the season, which is fourth in the Southern League. With five games left in the season, Dixon is one behind the franchise record of 17 homers clobbered by outfielder Juan Duran in 2014.

Kelly said Dixon, who went 3-4 and is hitting .373 in August to lift his season average to .265, liked watching the home run rocket over the right field fence. He’s also liked being able to play Dixon in all three outfield positions and second and first base.

“That’s a great sign, if he can hit a ball to right field like that,” Kelly said.

Pensacola Blue Wahoos starter Nick Travieso started the game out strong walking one to start the game and then retiring the next six batters with two strikeouts.

However, the Jacksonville Suns scored four runs on five hits and a walk, sending all nine batters to the plate. The first two runs scored when Jacksonville left fielder Austin Dean doubled into the left field corner. Suns second baseman Derek Dietrich, doing a MLB rehab, scored when center fielder Kenny Wilson grounded out to second. Jacksonville first baseman Chris Curley then singled to left field to score third baseman Brian Anderson to put the Suns up, 4-0.

Travieso developed bronchitis and has had trouble breathing. He stopped the game with two outs in the fourth inning and threw a warm up pitch for Pensacola manager Pat Kelly, pitching coach Danny Darwin and trainer Tyler Moos. He then struck out Dietrich to end the inning.

“He couldn’t catch his breath and panicked a little bit,” Kelly said. “We got him to relax. “He just had that one bad inning.”

Travieso, who struck out seven over six innings, lost the game, dropping to 4-7 with a 4.10 ERA. He last won July 8 against the Mobile BayBears when he threw a two hitter in six scoreless innings.

Kelly said he’s been resting his starters the past two weeks in preparation for the playoffs. He said he will make adjustments in the last series of the season against Birmingham to get ready.

“If we win (the division) great, if not we at least get the first two games at home,” Kelly said. “To me, this is the time to ramp up and get ready for the playoffs.”

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