Blue Wahoos Fall to Braves; Magic Number Drops To Two

June 18, 2023

The Blue Wahoos changed names and uniform design for the second time Saturday as the Pensacola Pok-Ta-Pok.

But they weren’t able to reverse fate.

A capacity crowd was immediately quieted, after the Mississippi Braves erupted for five runs in the first inning and carried that into a 6-3 victory to continue being a roadblock at Blue Wahoos Stadium.

It was Pensacola’s third consecutive loss, which matched a season high.

But the team continued getting help from the Montgomery Biscuits, who beat the Biloxi Shuckers for a third straight time Saturday, thus enabling the Blue Wahoos (37-25) to have a shot Sunday at clinching the first-half race in the Southern League South Division in the series finale.

The Biscuits and Shuckers are both six games back with seven to play. The Blue Wahoos, however, have a head-to-head tiebreaker edge against Montgomery, and would clinch the division with a win and a Biscuits victory over Biloxi on Sunday. The M-Braves (30-31) are 6.5 games back after one game this season was not made up due to weather.

Saturday’s game at Blue Wahoos Stadium started an hour late at 7:09 p.m. following more rain at the ballpark. The Blue Wahoos staff and grounds crew members worked quickly to pull the tarp and prepare the field.

The rest of the night became favorable, enabling the crowd of 5,038 to take in the post-game fireworks as the usual Saturday attraction. On this night, it was also designated part of Pensacola’s participation in the Copa de la Diversión program, designed to honor baseball’s Latin American heritage.

Pok-ta-Pok was a game that dates back 4,000 years and was the first ball sport in recorded history played in the Americas.

Pensacola lost its first game in the specialty series on May 5, also against the M-Braves.

This one took a similar narrative.

The M-Braves produced five runs in the first inning off Blue Wahoos starter Luis Palacios, all with two outs. It was the third consecutive inning – going back to Friday night – that Blue Wahoos pitchers had yielded five runs in an inning.

Palacios struggled with control and ran long counts in throwing 27 pitches to give up the runs.

M-Braves leadoff batter Cal Conley singled, then stole second to start the rally. With one out, Palacious hit Jesse Franklin in his batter’s helmet. With two outs, he walked Landon Stephens, which became a decisive point. Drew Campbell followed with a double that cleared the bases and included a error on left fielder Dalvy Rosario.

The next batter, Beau Philip, blasted a two-run homer before Palacios got out of the inning when facing the eight M-Braves batter. The M-Braves increased the lead to 6-0 on Stephens’ solo homer.

Pensacola’s lone jolt of offense occurred in the bottom of the sixth when Nasim Nuñez led off by reaching on an error. Troy Johnston singled, then José Devers hit a two run single and advanced to third on a throwing error. Griffin Conine drove in the third run with a ground out.

But from that point, the M-Braves bullpen shut down Pensacola on zero hits in the final three innings.

The Blue Wahoos will try to salvage a split in the series Sunday, after winning the first two games earlier this week.

Jake Walters will make his second start for the Blue Wahoos. He worked four innings on May 12 against Birmingham, allowing one run. The M-Braves will counter with Tanner Gordon (2-3, 3.98 ERA), who started Tuesday’s game.

by Bill Vilona, photo Nino Mendez / Pensacola Blue Wahoos

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