Blue Wahoos Beat Shuckers 9-1 To Win Series

May 31, 2021

Even without Max Meyer, the Blue Wahoos cruised to a 9-1 win over the Shuckers on Sunday that featured both dominant pitching and a barrage of hits from the Wahoos.

Pensacola outhit Biloxi 12-2 on a day where a win would guarantee another series victory, Pensacola’s third in four tries to start the year.

Meyer was making his fifth start of the season, and his second start against the Shuckers this week when he took the mound in the Sunday matinee. The right-hander was cruising through three innings when he had to exit the game with an apparent finger injury (blister). Though it looked minor, he removal was deemed precautionary. He finished the day with 3.1 innings pitched and allow no runs or hits walking three and striking out three.

Offensively, the Wahoos had little to show against Shucker starter Matt Hardy, who puzzled Pensacola’s bats through the first time though the lineup.

The second time around was a different story.

Pensacola’s crescendo-like offense began in the fifth, when Devin Hairston delivered a two-out, run-scoring single off Hardy to put the Wahoos up 1-0. However, the lead lasted no more than five minutes because Ryan Aguilar hit a homer in the bottom of the fifth to tie the game.

In the sixth, Lazaro Alonso came up with a two-out single off Cody Beckman to drive home two runs as Pensacola retook the lead, 3-1.

The floodgates opened in the seventh when Pensacola loaded the bases with nobody out in the top of the seventh. Shucker manager made a bold move by bringing in RHP Cam Robinson to make his Double-A debut in a bases-loaded jam.

The move nearly paid off as Robinson struck out Peyton Burdick and JJ Bleday, and was a strike away from retiring Jerar Encarnacion. However, it was the Wahoos who came up with yet another two-out hit, and this time it was Encarnacion with a bases-clearing double to put the Wahoos up 6-1.

Pensacola added three more in the seventh courtesy of a three-run homer by Hairston, which was his second of the series and his fourth of the season (including his two homers in High-A Beloit).

Burdick also finished the game with a 2-for-5 performance at the plate, extending his hitting streak to 10 consecutive games.

After Meyer had left the game, the Wahoos used five different relievers in order to hold Biloxi to one run on two hits. The two hits allowed are the fewest hits by an opponent against the Wahoos this season.

Pensacola returns home to take on the Mississippi Braves for the second time this season, and the first time since the opening week of the 2021 campaign. LHP Jake Eder (1-1, 0.45) is expected to start for Pensacola, and he will be opposed by RHP Nolan Kingham (2-1, 4.43).

by Chris Garagiola, Pensacola Blue Wahoos. File photo.

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