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SL Birmingham Barons

Barons Sweep Sunday's Doubleheader

July 11, 2022 - Southern League (SL)
Birmingham Barons News Release


GAME ONE

Sunday's 14-inning doubleheader saw both of the Barons' twin towers take the hill. In game one, the youngster Sean Burke earned the start and almost immediately faced trouble. Specifically, the second batter of the game, Tennessee's Jake Slaughter, launched a ball 416 feet to dead center, giving the Smokies an early 1-0 lead. However, the Barons bounced back quickly and evened things back up in the bottom half thanks to back-to-back singles from DJ Burt and Jose Rodriguez. Then, the two speedsters swiped second and third and forced an erroneous throw that allowed Burt to stroll all the way home.

Like the first, the Barons' baserunning aggressiveness earned them another run in the second. Following Yoelqui Cespedes's 11th stolen bag of the year, Moises Castillo ripped a hustle-double into the alley. Doing so gave Birmingham their first lead of the day and Castillo his 9th RBI in just 13 games. Sean Burke recovered in the following frames by racking up the strikeouts. Specifically, the 6'6" right-handed pitcher recorded four punchouts through his first three innings.

For the third consecutive inning, the Barons' baserunning culminated into a manufactured run. Moreover, in almost the same fashion as before, Jose Rodriguez and Tyler Neslony swiped second and third while drawing a poor throw from Tennessee's backstop Bryce Windham, thereby gifting Birmingham their third run of the day.

However, their 3-1 lead quickly evaporated into thin air because of a five-run frame for Tennessee. Burke's day ended abruptly after surrendering two walks and two singles. His exit arrived with the bases loaded and just one out, but an explosive inning could've still been avoided if Trey Jeans could shut the door. Unfortunately, Jeans entered and gave up two doubles before finally getting two outs.

Therefore, Burke's final line reads as follows: 3.1 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 4 BB, and 5 SOs. Conversely, after initially struggling, albeit fielding errors caused some of said issues, Tennessee's Peyton Remy managed to exit in line for the win. Specifically, the right-handed pitcher recorded 4 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 ER, and 6 SO. From then on, the game appeared to be on a fast track to the end. However, Tennessee's decision to bring Danis Correa in for the save proved to be poor.

Immediately, just five pitches in, Birmingham put two runners on via base hit and walk. Then, following consecutive outs, Jose Rodriguez ripped his third knock of the day, but this was a two-RBI double that cut Tennessee's lead in half. Tyler Neslony stepped up to the challenge and kept things rolling with an RBI single that brought the game to 7-6. Finally, after such a chaotic bottom half, Raudy Read, arguably the team's best batting-practice home run hitter, stepped in and smoked a ball into the left-field bleachers, giving the Barons their first walk-off victory since June 12th.

GAME TWO ‚¬â€¹

Despite the high-scoring and entertaining game one, Regions Field fans watched a much mellow second game. Specifically, both sides combined for just seven hits across the seven-inning ballgame. Although the offenses came out firing earlier in the day, the pitching dominated later on. For the Barons, their other 6'6" right-handed pitcher, Scott Blewett, pitched beautifully. Over five innings, the former big-leaguer allowed just two hits and one walk while punching out five Smokies too.

Similarly, Tennessee's starter, Walker Powell, performed admirably but not quite well enough to walk away victorious. After three shutout innings, Birmingham finally cracked into the score column thanks to a Yoelqui Cespedes RBI double. Although Powell avoided additional trouble, seeing that Magic City had two in scoring position with just one out, his day ended after four mediocre innings.

From there, the game fell into the hands of the bullpen. The Barons used Fraser Ellard and Theo Denlinger to finish the final two frames, while Tennessee opted for Bailey Horn and Jeremiah Estrada. None of these four relievers struggled tremendously, but any minor mistake becomes noteworthy in one-run games like this. And that became especially true for Estrada. In the sixth, Yoelqui Cespedes ripped a single and then swiped a bag, furthering the Barons' aggressiveness on the day. However, Estrada grew tired of those baserunning tendencies and attempted a pick-off, but threw the ball away, another commonality of Sunday, thereby allowing Cespedes to not only advance to third but come all the way around to score.

This insurance run became even more critical since Theo Denlinger surrendered a solo home run to Chase Strumpf in the top of the seventh. In the end, though, Denlinger recovered and shut the door for a team-tying fourth time. The doubleheader sweep pushes Birmingham ahead of Tennessee in the standings, as they sit in second place now. The homestand continues as Montgomery heads into town for the first time this season.

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