Wahoos Drop Fifth Straight
August 13, 2023
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos were held to four hits in a 2-0 loss to the Chattanooga Lookouts on Saturday night, losing their fifth consecutive game for the first time all season.
Patrick Monteverde (L, 8-3) looked like his old self in his return to Double-A, but a first-inning homer from Chattanooga’s Rece Hinds gave the Lookouts all the runs they would need for their second shutout of the series.
Monteverde finished strong, completing 6.0 innings with only the two first-inning runs allowed, as he took the tough-luck loss.
Sam Benschoter (W, 4-9) worked around trouble in the early innings, but kept the Blue Wahoos off the board in 5.0 scoreless innings to earn the win for the Lookouts.
The Blue Wahoos had their best chance to break through in the seventh, loading the bases with a single and two walks before Pedro Garcia got Nasim Nuñez to tap out to end the threat. Nuñez was 0-for-4, ending his team-record hitting streak at 17 games.
Ryan Meisinger (S, 10) worked a quick ninth to earn the save and lock down another Chattanooga win over the Blue Wahoos.
The Blue Wahoos have not lost six games in a row since dropping seven straight during the 2021 season, and have never been swept in a six-game series in team history. They turn to Evan Fitterer as they look to avoid the sweep on Sunday afternoon.
written by Erik Bremer
Wahoos Fall 12-7 In Fourth Straight Loss
August 12, 2023
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos dropped their fourth in a row on Friday night, falling 12-7 to the Chattanooga Lookouts.
Nasim Nuñez was 2-for-4 with a stolen base and an RBI, doubling to begin the ballgame and extending his hitting streak to a team-record 17 games.
Nuñez came around to score on a Victor Mesa Jr. double to give the Blue Wahoos an early 1-0 lead, but the rest of the night would be dominated by the Lookouts. M.D. Johnson (L, 1-5) allowed three runs in the second and three more in the third before departing.
José Devers got the Blue Wahoos back in the game with a two-run single in the third inning, but Lookouts starter Thomas Farr was effectively relieved by Eddy Demurias (W, 1-0) and Michael Byrne as the Chattanooga offense stretched out their lead in the middle innings. Pensacola reliever Jake Walters allowed five runs, four earned, in 2.0 innings of work and departed with the Lookouts leading 11-5 after five innings.
Bennett Hostetler added a solo homer for the Blue Wahoos in the eighth inning, his ninth of the year, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the early deficit. Andy Fisher finished off the 12-7 Lookouts win with a spotless ninth inning.
The Blue Wahoos have lost four straight for only the second time this year, and have not lost five in a row since late in the 2022 season. They turn to returning lefty Patrick Monteverde, who remains the Southern League Leader in wins and ERA despite spending the past two weeks with Triple-A Jacksonville, as they try to stop the skid on Saturday.
written by Erik Bremer
Photo Gallery: Northview’s Meet The Chiefs (And The Blackcats)
August 12, 2023
Northview High School held “Meet the Chiefs” before a large crowd on a hot Friday evening.
Fans were introduced to the Northview Chiefs football team, cheerleaders and Tribal Beat band. The football teams and cheerleaders from the Northwest Escambia Chiefs and Century Blackcats were also introduced.
For a photo gallery with the Northview Chiefs, cheerleaders, band, NJROTC, and fans, click here.
For a photo gallery from the NWE Chiefs and Century Blackcats, click here.
The Chiefs will host Baker on Friday, August 18 at 6 p.m. in a pre-season game. The regular season opens August 28 as Northview travels to Flomaton at 7 p.m.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Tate Grad Cam Partrick Signs With Shorter University Baseball
August 11, 2023
Tate High School 2023 graduate Cam Partrick signed Thursday to play baseball with Shorter University in Rome, Georgia.
“The most important person in my journey has definitely been God. At the end of my senior year, I didn’t think I’d be standing here today, but God had other plans for my future and has allowed me to continue my baseball career at Shorter University. I want to use every opportunity I get to use my platform to honor Him,” Partrick said during a signing ceremony held at Tate.
The Shorter Hawks are a NCAA Division II team.
For more photos, click or tap here.
Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Blue Wahoos Swept By Lookouts In Twin Bill
August 11, 2023
vThe Pensacola Blue Wahoos were swept by the Chattanooga Lookouts in a doubleheader at AT&T Field on Thursday night, falling 3-2 in a close game one and dropping the nightcap by a score of 10-5.
In game one, Carson Spiers (W, 7-2) came within six outs of a no-hitter as the Lookouts starter kept the Pensacola bats at bay. Luis Palacios (L, 7-5) allowed a pair of first-inning runs on a Rece Hinds RBI triple and Francisco Urbaez sacrifice fly, and surrendered another run in the fourth on a double play to give Chattanooga a 3-0 lead.
Davis Bradshaw broke up the no-hit bid with a triple in the top of the sixth and scored on a Cobie Fletcher-Vance RBI single to draw the deficit to 3-1. In the top of the seventh, Spiers got the first two outs quickly before four straight Pensacola batters reached base to keep the game alive. Pedro Garcia (S, 6) entered and struck out Jacob Berry with the bases loaded to give the Lookouts a 3-2 win.
In game two, the Lookouts got a solid start from Teddy Stankiewicz before Jake Wong (W, 1-1) took over the game in relief. After Pensacola starter Jonathan Bermúdez (L, 3-4) allowed single runs in the second and third, Chattanooga exploded for four runs in the fourth and four in the fifth to take a 10-1 lead.
Pensacola’s offense couldn’t muster much besides back-to-back doubles from Dalvy Rosario and Nasim Nuñez in the third to score a run. After singling in game one of the doubleheader, Nuñez’s double gave him a 16-game hitting streak to tie a Blue Wahoos franchise record.
Once again, the Blue Wahoos made things interesting down to their final out in the seventh. Berry, Will Banfield and José Devers each collected RBI singles to score four runs before Vin Timpanelli recorded the final out for a 10-5 final.
The Blue Wahoos continue their series against the Lookouts on Friday.
Blue Wahoos, Lookouts Rained Out In Chattanooga
August 10, 2023
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos and Chattanooga Lookouts saw their Wednesday contest at AT&T Field postponed due to rain. The game will be made up as part of a doubleheader Thursday. Thursday’s regularly scheduled game will be played approximately a half hour after the completion of game one.
Wahoos Quickly Quieted In 3-0 Loss
August 9, 2023
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos suffered just their second shutout loss of the season on Tuesday night, falling 3-0 to the Chattanooga Lookouts in the opener of a six-game road series.
The Blue Wahoos offense managed just three hits, all singles, in a game that took only two hours to complete.
Evan Fitterer (L, 6-4) took the loss, allowing three runs in 5.0 innings. Alex McGarry opened the scoring with a sacrifice fly in the first, and blasted an opposite-field solo homer in the fourth to pace the Chattanooga offense. Michael Trautwein capped the scoring with a two-out RBI single in the fourth.
That was more than enough for Julian Aguiar (W, 2-2), who turned in a dominant start with 7.0 innings of scoreless ball for the Lookouts. The righty, making his fifth start at Double-A, struck out seven without walking a batter and did not allow any balls out of the infield in the final five innings of his appearance.
The lone offensive bright spot for Pensacola was Nasim Nuñez, who extended his hitting streak to 14 games with an infield single in the sixth inning.
Marlins reliever Tommy Nance, making a rehab appearance in his return from a right shoulder injury, worked 1.2 scoreless innings. Dylan Bice, pitching in front of friends and family from his nearby hometown of Ringgold, Georgia, fanned three over 1.1 scoreless frames.
Ryan Meisinger (S, 9) worked around a two-out walk in the ninth to lock down a six-out save and complete the three-hit shutout.
The Blue Wahoos continue their series against the Lookouts on Wednesday.
Blue Wahoos Beat Biloxi in Finale
August 7, 2023
The bases were loaded, the lead was halved and dangerous hitters were up as the Blue Wahoos faced seventh-inning trouble on Sunday.
Pitching coach Dave Eiland went to the mound. In less than 60 seconds, his message to reliever Zach McCambley was heeded.
McCambley struck out the next Biloxi Shuckers batter with a well-placed fastball, ended the inning on a ground out and the Blue Wahoos responded with more runs to balloon a 6-4 lead into an 11-6 victory against the Shuckers to claim the series, thus ending the homestand at Blue Wahoos Stadium in the best way.
“Dave is such a good guy to have on your staff. He’s been around baseball a long time,” said catcher Bennett Hostetler, who went 2-for-3 at the plate and drove in a big run in the bottom of the seventh to extend the lead.
“He just told Zach to trust your stuff and to make pitches, throw one at a time and that’s what Zach did,” Hostetler said. “He did a good job of limiting damage in the inning and got us out of it. And we were able to score some runs after that.”
That seventh-inning sequence could have gone the wrong way. Instead, it led to the Blue Wahoos’ (61-40) fourth win in six games against the Shuckers, who entered Sunday having won 14 of their last 19 games, including two of the first three games this week in Pensacola.
We always have tough games with those guys,” Hostetler said. “They are always back and forth. We did a good job this week of putting together good innings when we needed them. When they scored, it seemed like we would always had an answer, Just a good job by everybody, really.”
In the ninth inning Sunday, the Shuckers (53-48), the Milwaukee Brewers affiliate, had three of their four batters reach base against closer Jefry Yan. A run was scored. Eiland again went to the mound, this time to calm Yan.
Result? Two strikeouts against the next three batters to end the game.
“He has a great relationship with pretty much all of his pitchers,” Hostetler said of Eiland, a former major league pitcher, who has been pitching coach for the New York Mets and Kansas City Royals. “He knows what to say in the moment and he gets the best out of who we have on the mound.”
The Blue Wahoos used five pitchers Sunday. It started with Collin Lowe making his Double-A level debut. The 24-year-old righthander was summoned from the Jupiter Hammerheads, the Miami Marlins’ Low-A affiliate.
A free agent signee in 2022, Lowe impressed with five innings pitched, two runs allowed, no walks and three strikeouts to get the mound win. Four relievers followed.
Run support was quickly provided. In the first inning, Jacob Berry blasted a two-run homer into the right field berm. He then followed with a two-run triple in the second inning.
Berry, the Marlins’ No. 1 draft pick last year out of LSU, reached based four times Sunday, going 2-for-3 with two runs scored and four RBI in his biggest game since joining the team last week from the Beloit (Wisconsin) Sky Carp, the Marlins’ High-A affiliate.
José Devers had a two-run single in the fourth inning for a 6-2 lead. Will Banfield, used as designated hitter Sunday, blasted a two-run homer in the eighth to further pad the lead.
All nine Blue Wahoos batters reached base. Eight scored runs.
The Blue Wahoos’ next home series begins on Aug. 15 against the Montgomery Biscuits.
by Bill Vilona, photo Nino Mendez / Pensacola Blue Wahoos
Wahoos Wait Out Rain And Rally Late For 4-3 Win
August 6, 2023
The Blue Wahoos’ recent good fortune without rain delays at home ran out Saturday.
But they maintained a season-long feat of late-inning success.
After the longest rain delay of the season – two plus hours – the Blue Wahoos erased a sixth-inning 3-0 deficit, got a clutch go-ahead, run-scoring double from catcher Will Banfield in the eighth inning, and pulled off a 4-3 victory against the Biloxi Shuckers before Saturday night fireworks lit up Blue Wahoos Stadium.
Reliever Luarbert Arias earned his first Double-A win for Pensacola after pitching two scoreless innings. He yielded a two-out single in the ninth, then threw a perfect tailing slider to strike out Biloxi’s designated hitter Tristen Lutz and end the game.
He followed a superb night by M.D. Johnson, who pitched seven innings for the first time this season, and was nearly as sharp as his last start at home when he blanked Rocket City in a six-inning outing.
The Blue Wahoos are now 53-3 when leading after eight innings, which is why this team is now 20 games above .500 at 60-40 and on pace to set a franchise record for most wins in a season.
The game was delayed 2 hours and 11 minutes following after a massive thunderstorm with strong winds in the late afternoon engulfed the stadium. It then turned into a slower, steady rain until 7:30 before the field tarp could be removed.
The fans among a once-capacity crowd who waited it all out saw another Blue Wahoos comeback. It led into the fireworks show sponsored Saturday by Hill-Kelly Dodge Chrysler Jeep – a Blue Wahoos charter partner since the inaugural season.
Biloxi hit the first of its three homers Saturday, all solo shots, when Isaac Collins hit a two-out shot in the first inning. Carlos Rodriguez, a Mobile native, made it 2-0 in the third inning with his two-out homer.
In the fourth inning, the Blue Wahoos’ Griffin Conine again showed his defensive skills by making a sensational leaping catch over the right field wall to rob Biloxi’s Ethan Murray of a 3-run homer.
That play, that catch, proved to be a game-deciding moment.
After Shuckers star Jackson Chourio, a 19-year-old phenom centerfielder, hit the team’s third solo homer in the sixth inning, the Blue Wahoos began the comeback. Chourio is one of the top prospects in Minor League Baseball.
But other than those three pitches, Johnson was effective all night working fast and throwing strikes. He allowed just five hits, four walks and struck out four to earn his second win.
Blue Wahoos newcomer Jacob Berry, the Miami Marlins’ top draft pick last year from LSU, hit a sacrifice fly RBI for the team’s first run.
Bennett Hostetler followed in the seventh with a two-run, bases-loaded single that scored Banfield and Victor Mesa Jr. to tie the game. Those led off the inning with a single and walk, followed by Cody Morissette’s walk to load the bases.
In the eighth inning, Berry led off with a single. He moved to second on José Devers’ sacrifice bunt, then over to third on Conine’s groundout. Banfield hit a 1-2 fastball high in the strike zone and just missed a homer off the right field wall for the game-winning RBI.
The Blue Wahoos waited out the weather, knowing it was eventually going to clear. Their previous high for rain delay this year was 1 hour and 16 minutes.
But with the artificial turf surface and drainage system at Blue Wahoos Stadium, the field can drain 16 inches of water in an hour. It can easily handle any extended set of thunderstorms.
The Blue Wahoos will now try to win the series in final game of the six-game homestand on Sunday afternoon.
by Bill Vilona, photo Nino Mendez / Pensacola Blue Wahoos
Hostetler Homers, Bermúdez Pitches Blue Wahoos To 8-1 Win
August 5, 2023
The morning temperature Friday was already well-past uncomfortable when Bennett Hostetler was on the field at Blue Wahoos Stadium, helping create memories for youth baseball players.
Hostetler and six other Pensacola teammates were volunteer instructors at the annual Chevy Youth Clinic weekend.
Many hours later, he produced a good memory of his own.
Hostetler hit a two-run homer, reached base three times, scored a pair of runs and made several strong notable putouts at first base as the Blue Wahoos cooled off the Biloxi Shuckers with an 8-1 victory before a sellout crowd.
The win evened the series at two games apiece and was the first time Biloxi was held under five runs since July 15. The Shuckers’ 8.1 runs per-game in the stretch is the best in Minor League Baseball. The Blue Wahoos (59-40) also evened the well-contested season matchup with Biloxi at 11-11.
Blue Wahoos starter Jonathan Bermúdez had his second-best outing in a season of majority quality starts. He shined with his array of breaking pitches, twirling six scoreless innings with three hits, two walks and five strikeouts on 89 pitches.
He got run support early.
In third inning Friday, Hostetler, 25, a Bozeman, Montana native, was part of a 3-run rally when he followed Cody Morissette’s single with his own base hit. Morissette had a big game as well, going 3-for-4 with two RBI.
Morissette scored on Dalvy Rosario’s sacrifice fly. Hostetler scored on José Devers’ two-run double.
In the Shuckers’ sixth inning, Bermudez gave up a leadoff double, then hit the next batter. Biloxi’s Tyler Black then followed with a line drive that Hostetler snared, then stepped on first base for a pivotal double play. Bermúdez ended the inning with a flyout.
The Blue Wahoos followed in the bottom half of the inning with a 4-run burst. Morissette’s RBI double was followed by Hostetler’s 2-run homer. Rosario made it back-to-back bombs with his solo shot that produced a 7-0 lead.
Griffin Conine hit the Blue Wahoos’ third homer of the night in the seventh inning. Relievers Chandler Jozwiak and Eli Villalobos finished off the win.
Blue Wahoos righthander M.D. Johnson (1-4, 5.57) will be on the mound against Shuckers righthander Tobias Myers (6-3, 5.67).
by Bill Vilona, photo Nino Mendez / Pensacola Blue Wahoos